r 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


This  book  is  -     E  or 
date       »*>ed  be' 


CAI 


GEOGRAPHY 

AND 

WORLD  POWER 


BY 

JAMES  FAIRGRIEVE,  M.A.,  F.R.G.S, 

RECOGNISED    TEACHER    OF   THE    UNIVERSITY    OF   LONDON 
IN   THE    THEORY   AND    PRACTICE   OF  EDUCATION 


SECOND    IMPRESSION 


NEW   YORK 
E.   P.   DUTTON   &    COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 
1917 

355o3 


XI 


&F33 


PREFACE 

"All  the  world's  a  stage.'' 

In  this  volume  an  endeavour  is  made  to  tell  a 
coherent  story  and  show  that  there  is  really  some 
order  in  the  apparently  disorderly  happenings  on  this 
planet.  Dealing  with  world  history  and  geography  in 
such  small  compass,  it  is  obvious  that  there  must  be 
many  omissions.  Opinions  may  differ  as  to  what 
omissions  ought  to  be  made,  and  some  things  may 
not  present  themselves  in  the  same  light  as  they  do 
to  the  author,  but  the  correctness  of  the  thesis  as  a 
whole  does  not  depend  on  the  accuracy  of  this  or  that 
statement  or  view.  In  particular  it  may  be  as  well 
to  emphasise  the  fact  that  while  the  book  deals  with 
world  history,  it  deals  with  only  one  side  of  it.  Its 
special  concern,  in  fact,  is  rather  with  the  setting  of 
the  stage  than  with  the  action  of  the  drama.  Its  aim 
is  to  point  out  how  the  stage  was  set  at  different  epochs 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  and  specially  how  the  stage 
has  been  set  for  that  act  of  the  drama  now  being 
played. 

At  a  cursory  glance,  then,  the  book  may  possibly 
appear  to  be  materialistic,  but  it  is  materialistic  only 
in  the  sense  that  from  the  nature  of  the  case  it  deals 
with  material  things.  The  ways  in  which  geographical 
conditions  affect  the  actors  are  traced  out,  but  those 
spiritual  aspects  of  the  drama  which  do  not  exhibit 
the  geographical  control  are  naturally  not  referred  to. 
This  does  not  mean  that  they  do  not  exist. 

J.  F. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAOE 

I       INTRODUCTION  ...  1 

II      THE     DESERT:    THE     BEGINNINGS    of    history: 

EGYPT  .  .  .  .  .  .  .17 

III  MARSH    AND    STEPPE:    BABYLONIA    AND    ASSYRIA  32 

IV  THE    WAYS:    PALESTINE    AND    PHOENICIA       . 


42 


V       THE    SEA  :    (i)    GREECE        .  .  .  50 

(ii)    CARTHAGE.  .  .  .  .66 

VI       CONTRAST  BETWEEN   SEA    AND    LAND  :    HIGHLAND 

AND    LOWLAND:    ROME.  ....  73 

VII       THE    PLAIN  :    INVADING    TRIBES  ...  95 

VIII       THE    OASES:    MOHAMMEDANISM.  .  .  114  * 

IX      THE    OCEAN:    THE    DISCOVERY:    IBERIA         .  .  128 

X      THE      OCEAN  :    OCEAN       POWER  :    HOLLAND      AND 

FRANCE 146 

XI       THE    OCEAN:    OCEAN    EMPIRE:    BRITAIN        .  .  161  >^_ 

XII       THE    FOREST:    (i)    RUSSIA  ....  193 

(ii)    GERMANY  .  .  .  199 

XIII       THE    LAND    OF    RIVERS  :    CHINA  .  .  .  225 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAOK 

XIV       I  UK    WARM    land:    INDIA  ....      247 

XV      THE      AFRICAN     GRASSLANDS:    BPHERES     OP      IN 

FLUBNCE      .......       269 

xvi     the  nkw  world:  history  bbforb  coluhb1 

spanish  america        .         .         .  . 

xvii     coal:  the  grbatbr  land  distributions :  the 

united  states   ......     305 

xviii     the  future  possibilities      ....     330 

INDEX      .  .  ,  .  .  .  .  .311 


GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION 
/.    WE  AT  TEE  BOOK  IS  ABOUT 

This  book  is  written  to  show  how  the  history  of  the 
world  has  been  controlled  by  those  conditions  and 
phenomena  which  we  class  together  under  the  title  of 
Geography,  and  to  point  out  which  are  the  really  essential 
geographical  facts  by  noting  those  which  have  most 
effectively  controlled  the  history.  In  that  sentence  there 
are  three  words  about  whose  meaning  we  must  be  quite 
clear.    They  are  "History,"  "controlled,"  "Geography." 

(1)  History. — When  we  speak  of  history  in  this  way,' 
we  of  course  imply  that  we  are  speaking  of  the  history 
of  man  on  the  earth,  but  even  so  history  may  mean 
a  number  of  things. 

(a)  It  may  mean  merely  a  statement  of  all  the  events 
that  ever  happened  in  the  order  in  which  they  happened, 
without  any  comments  on  them  whatever.  Now  it  is 
very  necessary  to  have  a  knowledge  of  events  when  we 
study  history,  but  it  would  not  be  very  interesting  merely 
to  know  them,  nor  is  it  possible  even  if  they  could  all 
be  found  out  for  any  one  to  know  them  all.  There  must 
be  a  selection  of  the  most  important. 

B 


2        <;k<h;i; Ai'iiv   AND  WORLD   POWER 

(b)  IIi'ikv  \vi-  <_'rt  another  idea  <>f  liistory,  as  a  state- 
ment  of  the  moel  important  events  in  the  order  in 
which  they  happened.     In  the  process  of  picking  out 

the  most  important  events  we  must,  however,  have 
compared  them  and  judged  which  were  the  most 
important.  To  do  this  we  must,  of  course,  think  why 
they  are  important  and  what  we  mean  by  important. 
Then  we  find  that  things  are  important  if  they  affect 
the  well-being  of  men  to  a  great  extent,  and  are  less 
important  if  they  do  not  affect  man  much. 

(c)  We  have  thus  almost  at  once  a  third  idea  of  history 
as  a  story  of  the  important  events  which  have  happened, 
with  a  statement  of  the  causes  which  have  brought 
them  about  and  of  the  effects  which  they  have  had  on 
man.  In  estimating  importance  we  must  remember 
that  some  events  affect  man  greatly  for  a  time  and  only 
slightly  afterwards,  while  others  affect  man  only  slightly 
at  first,  but  continue  to  produce  results  for  a  long  time. 

When  we  look  at  history  in  this  way,  we  find  that 
some  events  that  are  apparently  of  little  account  are 
really  the  important  events,  while  others  that  are 
apparently  very  important  must  take  a  lower  place. 
We  find  also  that  the  causes  and  results  of  liistory  are 
so  entwined  that  "  history  "  becomes  one  organic  whole. 
Some  particular  event  has  naturally  led  on  toother  events. 
What  one  man  or  tribe  or  nation  has  done  has  affected 
the  action  of  other  men  or  nations.  The  study  of  history 
is  so  interesting  just  because  it  is  one  of  the  studies  which 
treat  of  men,  their  relation  to  one  another,  and  the 
effect  that  each  man  or  collection  of  men  has  on  the 
rest.  From  a  study  of  history,  too,  we  find  that  men 
very  widely  separated  both  in  time  and  space  have  yet 
possessed  very  similar  characters,  so  that  events  very 


INTRODUCTION  3 

similar  to  one  another  may  happen  in  very  different 
parts  of  the  world,  or  even  at  times  many  centuries  apart, 
just  because  of  this  likeness.  There  is  thus  a  tendency 
for  history  to  repeat  itself,  as  we  say. 

But  history  is  not  all  repetition.  There  has  been  an 
advance.  If  we  go  back  a  year  or  two  we  may  not 
notice  it,  but  if  we  cast  our  thoughts  back  some  centuries 
and  look  all  over  the  world,  we  are  conscious  that  some- 
thing of  an  advance  has  been  made,  and  if  we  consider 
the  whole  history  of  the  world  the  progress  becomes 
most  evident.  We  may  be  very  doubtful  how  to 
express  what  we  mean  by  "  advance,"  but  none  the 
less  we  feel  it  is  there.  We  are  conscious,  for  example, 
that  during  historic  times  men's  ideas  of  what  is  right 
and  wrong  have  undergone  a  change  which,  on  the 
whole,  is  for  the  better.  But  this  is  only  one  side  of 
the  advance.  There  are  other  obvious  ways  in  which  a 
change  for  the  better  has  taken  place.  We  are  better 
off  not  only  morally  and  intellectually,  but  materially; 
we  have  better  clothes;  our  food  is  better;  we  have 
more  conveniences;  we  have  more  time  for  ourselves 
than  had  men  who  lived  centuries  ago.  In  a  thousand 
ways  we  know  that  on  the  average  it  is  a  great  deal 
better  to  be  alive  in  the  twentieth  century  a.d.  than  to 
have  lived  five  thousand  years  ago. 

Now  what  is  it  that  has  been  happening?  Leaving 
out  of  account  all  religious  questions,  what  does  history 
mean  ?  Is  there  no  short  way  in  which  we  can  say 
what  history  is?  Many  answers  may  be  given,  and  to 
the  one  given  here  there  may  be  objections  and  there 
certainly  are  qualifications,  but  it  may  be  said  that 
in  its  widest  sense  on  its  material  side  history- 
is  the  story  of  man's  increasing  ability  to 


4  GEOGRAPHY   AND    WORLD   POWER 

control  energy.  By  energy  we  mean  the  capacity 
for  doing  work,  for  causing  -not  controlling — move- 
ment, for  making  things  go  or  making  things  stop, 
whether  they  be  trains  or  watches  or  mills  or  men. 
In  order  that  anything  may  be  done  energy  is  re- 
quired. .Man's  life  is  taken  up  by  the  one  endeavour  to 
get  and  to  use  as  much  energy  as  possible  and  to  waste 
as  little  as  possible.  Any  means  whereby  he  can  get  more 
or  waste  less  marks  an  advance,  and  is  important  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  All  the  discoveries  which  have 
been  made  of  how  to  do  things,  inventions  as  we  call 
them,  which  have  marked  various  stages  of  progress, 
are  not  merely  rather  interesting  facts  that  have  very 
little  to  do  with  history.  They  have  everything  to  do 
with  it.  The  inventions  of  hieroglyphics,  of  writing,  of 
numerals,  of  printing,  of  the  compass,  of  spades,  wheels, 
needles,  of  steam-engines,  and  of  banknotes  have  had 
enormously  important  effects  on  the  course  of  the  history 
of  the  world,  and  are  important  just  in  so  far  as  they 
enable  men  to  use  or  to  save  energy. 

Thus  it  is  obvious  that  energy  is  very  important  in 
what  might  be  called  "  social  history,"  but  it  may  be 
necessary  to  show  that  it  is  as  important  in  constitu- 
tional and  military  history — the  history  which  treats 
of  laws  and  battles,  kings  and  republics.  Perhaps  an 
illustration  will  be  of  service.  Not  only  must  the 
energy  obtained  from  burning  coal  or  falling  water  be 
used  in  order  to  keep  machines  going,  but  it  must  be 
expended  in  other  ways.  It  must  be  apparently  wasted 
in  order  that  we  may  in  the  long  run  be  able  to  make  use 
of  more  energy,  and  this  is  done  by  methods  which 
closely  resemble  those  of  whose  working  on  a  much 
larger  scale  we  learn  in  social  and  political  history. 


INTRODUCTION  5 

(i)  Energy  may  be  used  up  by  replacements  of  old 
parts  of  the  machine  or  by  additions  which  are  more 
fitted  for  the  work.  It  is  used  in  making,  setting 
up  and  adjusting  the  new  part,  and  there  is  an  ap- 
parent waste.  So,  when  new  methods  of  government 
are  introduced  we  are  but  making  improvements  in 
the  machine.  Gradual  changes  of  methods  of  govern- 
ment represent  additions  or  replacements,  while  revo- 
lutions by  which  one  form  of  government  takes  the 
place  of  another  correspond  to  the  substitution  of  a 
new  machine  altogether  for  the  old  one.  Such  substitu- 
tions are,  however,  so  rare  as  to  be  almost  unknown 
on  any  great  scale.  A  very  large  amount  of  the  old 
machinery  is  generally  left  and  incorporated  with  the 
new,  even  in  the  most  drastic  revolutions. 

(ii)  Energy  may  be  used  up  by  oiling  a  machine  : 
all  the  energy  used  in  making  and  refining  the  oil  and  in 
applying  it  is  apparently  wasted,  but  the  use  of  oil 
enables  a  machine  to  do  much  more  work  than  it 
otherwise  could  do.  In  the  same  way  the  machine  of 
government  uses  a  great  number  of  men  as  oil,  so  that 
it  runs  smoothly  and  in  the  long  run  energy  is  used 
advantageoiisly  to  the  individuals  concerned.  Banks, 
exchanges,  commercial  newspapers  are  all  oil  by  which 
the  affairs  of  the  commercial  world  and  indirectly  of  the 
social  and  political  world  are  made  to  go  smoothly. 

(iii)  Sometimes  the  energy  of  a  machine,  usually 
supplied  in  the  form  of  heat,  tends  to  escape  without 
doing  useful  work.  Then  the  engineer  puts  some  pack- 
ing round  the  parts  from  which  the  heat  escapes.  To 
prevent  rust  or  outside  energies  of  wind  doing  damage 
machines  also  require  to  be  protected.  In  both  these 
cases  the  energy  used  in  making  the  packing  and  pro- 


6    GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

taction  is  apparently  wasted,  but  in  the  long  run  more 
energy  is  saved  than  wasted.  All  buildings,  whether 
to  protect  machinery  or  men,  are  erected  for  the  same 
purpose.  The  police  force,  the  army,  the  navy,  and  all 
such  organizations  are  so  much  packing  or  protection  ; 
on  the  one  hand,  to  prevent  the  energy  of  the  machine 
from  dissipating  itself  wastefully  or  in  doing  actual 
damage,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  to  prevent  outside 
energies  interfering  with  its  regular  working. 

There  is  also  another  engineering  principle  which  has 
had  a  very  great  effect  in  history.  It  is  that  of  the  maxi- 
mum load  :  that  less  energy  is  required  at  any  one  time 
to  drive  a  number  of  machines  together  than  it  takes  to 
drive  them  separately,  for  the  machines  are  never  all 
working  at  full  pressure  at  the  same  time ;  for  example, 
in  a  tramcar  system  it  is  more  economical  of  energy  to 
drive  all  the  cars  from  a  central  station  than  for  each  car 
to  drive  itself,  because,  apart  from  the  saving  of  energy  in 
constructing  less  machinery,  there  is  a  great  saving  in 
that  the  cars  are  never  all  going  full  speed  at  the  same 
time.  This  principle,  like  the  others,  is  of  wider  applica- 
tion. It  is  because  of  it  that  towns  grow  nowadays. 
Great  stores  and  businesses  and  trade  unions  owe  their 
importance  to  the  same  cause,  and  it  is  even  partly 
because  of  it  that  nationalities  and  empires  exist. 

(d)  We  have  now  a  fourth  idea  of  history,  so  that  when 
we  speak  of  the  history  of  the  world  in  its  greatest 
sense,  we  mean  an  orderly  relation  of  events  which  show 
the  processes  whereby  man  has  gradually  come  to  be 
able  to  use  more  and  more  energy,  together  with  a 
statement  of  the  causes  and  results  of  these  events. 

Connected  with  this  idea  of  the  maximum  load  is 
another    engineering    idea — the    idea    of    momentum. 


INTRODUCTION  7 

Momentum  is  the  capacity  of  a  body  for  "  going  on  " 
when  once  started — whether  it  be  a  train,  or  a  business, 
or  a  town,  or  the  Lancashire  cotton  industry,  or  the 
British  Empire — and  the  greater  the  body  is,  the  greater 
its  momentum.  It  is,  on  the  whole,  easier  to  keep  each 
going  than  to  stop  it,  for  an  expenditure  of  energy 
is  required  to  stop  things,  and  if  things  are  stopped 
suddenly  damage  is  done.  When  the  energy  necessary 
to  keep  a  thing  going  is  shut  off,  there  is  not  at  once  a 
cessation  of  movement  any  more  than  there  is  a  maxi- 
mum effect  when  the  energy  is  applied.  An  engine 
does  not  at  once  stop  dead  if  the  steam  is  shut  off, 
nor  does  it  at  once  leap  to  full  speed  when  the  power 
is  applied.  In  the  long  run  the  machine  slackens  and 
stops  if  there  is  not  enough  energy  to  keep  it  going, 
but  it  does  not  slacken  all  at  once.  The  Roman  Empire 
kept  going  for  three  hundred  years  after  its  energy  was 
seriously  reduced. 

(2)  Controlled. — We  must  know  what  is  meant  by 
"  control."  Perhaps  it  may  be  a  help  to  understanding 
if  we  say  what  it  does  not  mean  and  if  we  take  some 
examples.  It  does  not  mean  "make"  or  "cause'.': 
that  is  something  higher.  If  we  have  a  horse  we 
controj  the  animal,  determine  whether  he  is  to  stop  or 
go  on,  and  where  he  is  to  stop  or  to  what  place  he  is  to 
go,  but  we  do  not  make  either  the  horse  or  the  energy 
which  he  uses  to  do  what  we  wish.  Or  again,  men  can 
control  a  stream  coming  down  a  hillside  to  the  extent 
that  they  can  dig  a  channel  for  it,  line  its  banks  with 
stone  to  prevent  it  coming  beyond  the  channel;  they 
can  lay  pipes  to  take  a  portion  or  all  of  it  where  they 
desire,  but  they  cannot  make  the  stream,  in  the  sense 
of  bringing  the  water  into  existence.     Man  can  control 


8         GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

his  use  of  coal;  he  can  determine  whether  lie  may  use 
its  energy  to  warm  himself  by  its  aid,  or  to  cause  a 
locomotive  to  draw  him,  or  to  make  an  engine  drive  a 
mill  to  make  clothes  for  him,  but  he  cannot  make  the 
coal. 

So  when  we  say  that  "  history  is  controlled  by 
geography,"  we  do  not  say  that  man  is  compelled  by 
geography  to  use  more  and  more  energy,  but  that  the 
precise  way  in  which  he  has  come  to  do  this  is  largely 
controlled  by  geography. 

(3)  Geography. — We  must  know  also  what  is  meant 
by  geography.  One  must  beware  of  thinking  that  a 
knowledge  of  geography  means  only  knowing  the  names 
of  places  or  even  knowing  where  places  are,  or  perhaps 
knowing  something  interesting  about  them.  This  is 
one  very  important  part  of  geography — the  part  that 
corresponds  to  knowing  events  in  history,  but  it  is  only 
a  part.  Nor  must  it  be  thought  that  a  knowledge  of 
geography  means  a  knowledge  of  everything  on  the 
surface  of  the  world.  ^Everything  on  the  surface  of  the 
world  must  have  something  to  do  with  geography, 
but  it  need  not  itself  be  geography.  From  a  study  of 
geography  we  learn  where  things  are,  not  towns  and 
mountains  and  rivers  only,  but  people  and  conditions. 
We  learn  how  things  are  distributed  on  the  earth's  sur- 
face, where  are  land  and  water,  where  there  is  a  heavy 
rainfall  and  where  none  at  all,  where  the  temperature  is 
high  and  where  it  is  low,  where  vegetation  of  all  kinds 
grows,  where  are  storms  and  calms,  where  are  men  and 
the  different  races  of  men. 

Also,  as  very  many  geographical  conditions  are  causes 
of  other  geographical  conditions,  we  may  very  often 
have  to  include  causes  and  results  in  our  study,  so  that 


INTRODUCTION  9 

we  must  know  why  the  great  majority  of  the  things 
we  are  considering  are  where  they  are,  and  what  effect 
their  presence  and  absence  have  on  the  life  of  man. 
We  have  assumed,  in  considering  what  history  is,  that 
events  have  happened  because  of  what  men  have  done 
previously ;  here  it  is  assumed  that  events  may  happen 
in  the  way  they  do  on  account  of  the  action  of  other 
controls. 

Remembering  what  we  have  now  found  to  be  the 
meaning  of  "  History,"  "  controlled,"  and  "  Geography," 
we  can  see  that  this  book  has  been  written  to  show 
how  the  way  in  which  man  has  come  to  be  able  to  use 
more  and  more  energy  has  been  determined  by  distribu- 
tions on  the  earth's  surface. 

We  thus  obtain  some  kind  of  idea  of  the  world  stage 
on  which  men  are  now  acting  their  parts. 

II.    THE  GREAT,  SIMPLE,  FAR-REACHING  CONTROLS 

Before  proceeding  to  trace  out  the  effect  geographical 
controls  have  had  on  the  course  of  history,  in  directing 
that  certain  events  or  conditions  should  follow  one  an- 
other in  order  of  time,  we  must  first  consider  the  effect 
of  some  of  the  very  great  controls  which  are  so  funda- 
mental and  so  familiar  that  there  is  a  great  danger  of 
forgetting  how  extremely  important  they  are.  They 
are  always  there,  and  every  human  being  has  become 
used  to  them,  so  that  they  are  apt  not  to  be  noticed, 
but  just  because  of  their  acting  silently  yet  constantly 
on  all  men,  in  all  stages  of  civilization,  it  is  difficult 
to  imagine  how  enormously  great  their  effect  must  have 
been. 

(i)  Place. — It  is  obvious  that  every  event  must  have 


10   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

happened  somewhere,  so  that  the  idea  of  place,  the 
simplest  idea  of  geography,  is  intimately  connected  with 
even  the  simplest  idea  of  history  also.  Further,  the 
events  which  have  happened  at  a  particular  place  or 
within  a  certain  district  very  often  have  a  definite 
ldation  to  one  another.  They  are  usually  all  connected 
with  one  another  in  some  way,  and  not  so  closely  con- 
nected with  places  outside,  so  that  series  of  such  facts  are 
taken  as  the  histories  of  certain  places  or  districts.  We 
have  thus  come  to  speak  of  the  history  of  England,  the 
history  of  France,  the  history  of  Greece  and  the  history 
of  London.  This  is  one  very  important  if  very  obvious 
way  in  which  history  has  been  controlled  by  geography, 
of  which  the  full  importance  will  be  realized  later. 

But  we  know  that  the  histories  of  these  places  or 
districts  cannot  be  taken  by  themselves.  We  cannot 
know  very  much  of  the  history  of  London  if  we  do  not 
know  something  of  the  history  of  England,  and  we  know 
that  Englishmen  have  for  such  a  very  long  time  been 
brought  into  contact  with  Frenchmen,  that  the  history 
of  England  has  been  affected,  controlled  to  a  certain 
extent,  by  the  history  of  France.  Similar  statements 
are  true  of  all  histories  :  each  is  controlled  not  only 
by  the  fact  that  for  some  reason  or  another  the  district 
of  which  it  is  the  history  has  a  certain  unity ;  but  also 
by  the  fact  that  its  inhabitants  are  affected  by  conditions 
in  other  districts,  nearer  or  more  remote,  each  with  a  unit  v 
of  its  own.  In  modern  times  this  has  been  increasingly 
the  case,  but  it  is  true  of  very  ancient  history  also. 

(ii)  Energy. — Again,  if  we  consider  that  history  has 
been  found  to  deal  with  the  growing  knowledge  of  how 
to  use  and  how  to  save  energy,  we  see  that  history  must  be 
controlled  by  the  distribution  of  energy,  by  the  distribu- 


INTRODUCTION  11 

tion  of  the  various  forms  of  energy,  and  by  the  distribu- 
tion of  anything  which  may  prevent  the  use  of  energy 
or  which  may  induce  men  to  use  energy. 

Almost  all  the  energy  present  on  the  earth's  surface 
has  come  from  the  sun  in  the  forms  of  heat,  light  and  per- 
haps other  kinds  of  radiation.  It  is  owing  to  this  energy 
that  men  are  able  to  do  things,  to  move  things ;  they 
make  this  energy  their  own,  part  of  themselves,  because 
they  eat  bread  made  from  wheat  or  other  grain  grown  by 
the  light  and  heat  of  the  sun:  the  flour  is  ground  by 
means  of  coal  compacted  from  vegetation,  grown  by  the 
sun's  heat,  or  it  may  be  ground  by  means  of  water  power 
obtained  from  the  rain  running  down  the  mountain  side, 
first  pulled  up — evaporated — from  the  ocean,  by  the  sun 
and  transported  to  the  land  by  winds  set  in  motion  by  the 
sun.  Or  men  may  derive  part  of  their  energy  from  the 
flesh  of  animals  which  have  first  eaten  vegetation  grown 
by  the  sun's  rays.  Or  men  may  dispense  with  some  food 
altogether,  and  heat  themselves  by  fires  of  vegetable  mat- 
ter— coal  or  wood  or  oil — which  have  acquired  their  latent 
energy  from  the  sun.  Or  men  may  save  some  energy  by 
wearing  clothes  formed  directly  or  indirectly  by  the  energy 
of  the  sun.  In  all  these  very  fundamental  cases,  and  in 
very  many  others  almost  equally  fundamental,  it  is 
easy  to  see  that  the  energy  controlled  by  man  comes 
directly  from  the  sun ;  while  a  little  reflection  will  show 
that  the  vastly  greater  portion  of  the  energy  required 
for  the  multitudinous  details  of  daily  life  is  derived 
originally  from  the  sun. 

Thus  the  distribution  of  energy  on  the  earth  is  very 
largely  the  distribution  of  sun's  energy.  Places  directly 
under  the  sun  receive  more  energy  than  places  which 
receive  radiations  on  a  slant;  that  is  to  say,  places  near 


12 


INTRODUCTION  13 

the  equator  are  on  the  whole  better  off  than  places 
nearer  the  poles.  This  is  perhaps  the  most  important 
permanent  fact  in  the  history  of  the  world.  The 
availability  of  this  energy  is  modified  by  many  other 
distributions  in  varying  degrees  at  various  times,  but 
through  all  history  it  is  the  underlying  fact. 

The  effect  that  this  distribution  has  had  on  the  history 
of  the  world  will  perhaps  be  more  clearly  realized  if 
we  imagine  our  globe,  with  continents  and  oceans  just 
as  we  know  them,  to  have  revolved  round  the  sun  in 
such  a  way  that  always  the  same  face  was  turned 
towards  the  sun.  In  that  case  the  heat  and  light 
would  have  been  concentrated  on  one  half  of  the 
earth,  and  largely  in  the  middle  of  that  hemisphere. 
The  other  hemisphere  would  then  have  received  no 
radiations  at  all.  It  is  obvious  that  life  would  not  be 
possible  where  it  is  now  possible,  and  might  be  possible 
where  it  is  now  practically  impossible.  Or  we  might 
imagine  the  earth  to  rotate  as  it  does  now,  but  about 
a  line  other  than  its  present  axis ;  a  very  little  reflection 
will  show  how  enormously  different  the  conditions  might 
have  been  from  those  which  actually  do  exist.  These 
are  extreme  cases,  but  they  emphasize  how  the  dis- 
tribution of  energy  in  its  present  form  must  have 
controlled  history. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  effect  of  the  general  scheme 
of  distribution  of  energy  on  the  earth's  surface  is 
modified  by  the  personal  and  what  may  be  called  the 
racial  equation,  but  even  the  distribution  of  energy  is 
somewhat  modified  by  other  distributions.  Places  near 
the  equator  receive  on  the  whole  more  energy  than  those 
near  the  poles.  The  decrease  of  energy  received  is  not, 
however,  regular;   some  districts  actually  receive  more 


14 


INTRODUCTION  15 

energy  than  those  nearer  the  equator.  This  is  due 
almost  entirely  to  the  distributions  of  air  and  air- 
currents  or  winds. 

(a)  The  actual  distribution  of  air  is  extremely  im- 
portant. It  is  well  known  that  the  higher  we  go,  the 
colder  it  gets,  i.  e.  the  less  energy  there  is  in  a  form 
which  may  be  used.  This  is  related  to  the  fact  that 
the  higher  we  go  the  less  air  there  is.  Thus  distances 
which  are  negligible  on  the  horizontal  scale  on  the  earth 
are  of  great  importance  measured  vertically,  just  because 
of  this  lack  of  energy.  Wheat,  for  example — a  staple 
food — can  in  Britain  be  grown  as  far  north  as  Inverness- 
shire,  but  it  will  not  grow  even  in  England  at  a  height 
of  1000  feet,  because  there  is  not  enough  heat  to  ripen  it. 
The  temperature  falls  on  the  average  1°  F.  for  every  50 
or  60  miles  one  goes  towards  the  poles,  but  the  tem- 
perature falls  the  same  amount  for  every  200  or  300 
feet  one  goes  upwards. 

(6)  The  distribution  of  air-currents  is  of  equal  or 
perhaps  of  greater  importance.  It  is  owing  to  the  action 
of  the  winds  in  causing  water  drifts  that  England  is 
warmer  than  Labrador.  Human  life  on  a  large  scale 
is  possible  in  the  one  owing  to  the  drift  of  warm  water 
from  the  south-west  raising  the  temperature  above 
what  is  the  average  for  latitudes  50°  to  G0°.  In  Labrador 
human  life  is  all  tut  impossible  owing  to  the  movement 
of  icy  water  from  the  frigid  North.  A  comparison  of  a 
map  showing  winds  with  one  showing  ocean  currents 
will  make  it  evident  that  the  latter  are  largely  due  to 
the  former,  while  a  comparison  of  both  with  maps  show- 
ing temperature  will  bring  home  the  fact  that  the  habit- 
ableness  or  the  reverse  of  lands  for  20°  south  of  the 
Arctic  Circle  is  due  to  the  results  of  the  wind  system. 


16        GEOGRAPHY    AND   WORLD   POWER 

The  wind  system  has  exercised  an  extremely  im- 
l»  it  ant  control  over  history  in  another  way.  The 
dependence  of  man  on  food  has  already  been  referred 
to.  Wherever  he  lives  man  must  eat,  and  he  must  eat 
either  vegetable  things  or  animal  things.  As  the 
animal  tilings  must  eventually  derive  their  food  from 
vegetable  things,  it  is  obvious  that  it  is  the  vegetable 
tilings  which  are  of  first  importance.  A  very  few 
communities  may  live  on  fish,  which  in  turn  live  on 
lowly  forms  of  vegetation  growing  in  water,  or  on  other 
creatures  which  eventually  depend  on  these  lowly 
forms,  but  the  overwhelming  majority  of  human  beings 
depend  for  their  food  on  vegetable  productions  grown 
by  means  of  rain.  Thus  it  is  not  enough  that  energy — 
heat — should  be  present;  it  is  necessary  that  rain  also 
should  be  present  in  order  that  vegetation  may  grow, 
i.  e.  there  must  not  only  be  energy,  but  it  must  be 
available ;  it  must  exist  in  a  form  in  which  it  can 
be  used.  Now  rain  is  the  moisture  brought  from  the 
ocean  to  tohe  land.  The  only  carriers  whereby  it  is 
brought  are  the  winds.  If  they  blow  from  the  sea  to 
the  land,  then  lands  possessing  energy  will  almost 
certainly  be  habitable ;  if  they  blow  from  the  land 
to  the  sea,  the  land  from  which  they  blow  will  be  dry, 
barren  and  undesirable  for  human  life. 

Thus  it  is  obvious  that  geographical  conditions  have 
in  a  very  real  if  somewhat  general  sense  controlled  his- 
tory in  that  some  places  rather  than  others  are  suitable 
for  human  habitation.  But  history  has  been  controlled 
by  geographical  conditions  in  a  far  more  particular 
sense,  in  that  geographical  conditions  of  various  kinds 
have  controlled  the  actual  course  of  history.  The  action 
of  these  conditions  we  now  proceed  to  consider. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  DESERT  :    THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HISTORY  :    EGYPT 

So  far  we  have  seen  that  history  has  been  controlled 
by  geographical  factors  in  the  sense  that,  owing  to  dis- 
tributions of  heat  and  moisture,  life  is  possible  in  some 
places  on  the  earth's  surface  rather  than  in  others.  We 
have  now  to  consider  the  effect  which  other  geographical 
conditions  have  had  in  controlling  the  lines  along  which 
advance  has  been  made. 

(I.)  We  must  notice  that  geographical  conditions 
supplied  the  stimulus  under  which  the  advance  was 
begun  as  well  as  continued. 

It  is  true  that  in  equatorial  regions,  with  their  abun- 
dance of  heat  and  moisture,  we  have  conditions  in  which 
an  animal  existence  may  be  most  easily  sustained,  but 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  is  not  in  equatorial  but  in  temperate 
regions  that  man  has  advanced  farthest  in  his  ability 
to  control  energy.  It  is  not  in  Equatorial  Africa  but  in 
Temperate  Europe  that  we  have  a  history  worth  the 
name.  This  is  owing  to  two  geographical  conditions, 
both  of  which  owe  their  importance  to  the  effect  they 
have  on  the  m'nd  as  well  as  the  body  of  man. 

(i)  In  the  first  place,  just  because  existence — animal 
existence— is  easy  in  equatorial  latitudes,  there  is  no 
inducement  to  greater  effort  than  is  required  to  take 
and  eat  the  food  necessary  to  keep  the  body  alive. 
In  temperate  latitudes,  the  farther  we  go  from  the 
c  17 


18        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD  POWER 

equator,  the  more  difficult  life  becomes,  but  because  of 
this,  if  life  is  to  continue  at  all,  greater  activity  must  be 
shown.  Savages  in  Equatorial  Africa  need  not  wear 
clothes.  Even  savages  in  Northern  Europe  must  wear 
some  kind  of  covering,  if  it  be  only  a  covering  of  skins. 
Nor  is  food  so  easily  obtained  in  Europe.  It  takes  toil 
to  get  it.  Thus,  even  when  all  races  were  savage  we 
might  expect  to  find  a  higher  type  of  savage  in  Europe 
than  in  Africa,  just  because  more  mental  activities  are 
called  into  play  by  the  very  lack  of  solar  energy. 

(ii)  Secondly,  in  equatorial  regions  one  day  is  very 
much  like  another  day,  while  farther  north  one  day  is 
not  like  another  day.  Owing  to  the  swing  of  the  seasons 
in  temperate  latitudes  there  are  summer  days  and  winter 
days.  These  differ  either  because  the  amount  of  energy 
— of  heat — varies,  or  because  the  amount  of  moisture 
varies.  In  either  case  there  is  certain  to  be  lack  of  food 
at  one  time  and  comparative  plenty  at  another.  Thus  in 
Equatorial  Africa,  for  example,  the  cycle  being  the  day, 
the  tendency  is  for  races  as  for  individuals  not  to  look 
too  far  ahead,  but  to  live  in  the  present  and  make  no 
provision  for  the  future,  whereas  in  Temperate  Europe, 
the  cycle  being  the  year,  the  tendency  is  to  take  thought 
for  the  days  to  come. 

Here  are  two  sets  of  geographical  conditions,  typical 
of  manv,  if  not  most,  geographical  conditions,  perfectly 
obvious — so  obvious  that  there  is  a  danger  of  their  being 
overlooked  or  thought  to  have  little  to  do  with  the 
history  of  the  world;  but  just  because  they  are  acting, 
if  not  insistently,  yet  continually  and  effectively  in  the 
long  run  on  every  man,  woman  and  child  of  these  two 
regions,  they  go  far  of  themselves,  and  they  are  not 
alone,  to  explain  the  difference  in  the  histories  of  the  two 


THE  DESERT  19 

regions,  the  advance  of  Europe  and  the  darkness  of  the 
Dark  Continent. 

The  importance  of  both  these  conditions  lies  in  the 
mental  stimulus  given  towards  saving  energy  in  the 
so-called  temperate  regions — if  life  is  to  be  continued 
at  all.  By  wearing  clothes  radiation  of  heat-energy  is 
prevented,  and  the  energy  is  saved  for  some  other  pur- 
pose. Latitudes  under  the  influence  of  seasonal  change 
must  have  definite  times  of  sowing  and  harvest,  definite 
times  for  blossom  and  fruit,  so  that  food-energy  has  to, 
be  saved  from  times  of  plenty  till  times  of  scarcity.  In 
the  temperate  regions,  as  in  equatorial  regions,  the  line 
of  least  resistance  is  followed,  but  in  the  one  case  there 
is  the  stimulus  almost  amounting  to  the  necessity  which 
;  is  the  mother  of  invention,  while  in  the  other  it  is  absent. 
Hence,  owing  to  this  absence  of  stimulus  to  thinking 
how  to  save  energy,  we  should  expect  to  find  in  equatorial 
latitudes  lower  types  of  race  than  elsewhere,  at  any  rate 
for  long  ages  after  races  elsewhere  have  begun  to  rise 
above  the  level  of  mere  animal  living;  we  should  thus 
expect  to  find  no  advance,  and  consequently  no  history : 
while  in  temperate  regions,  owing  to  the  continual  pre- 
sence of  stimulus,  we  should  expect  to  find  that  races 
continued  to  advance  from  strength  to  strength.  This 
gives  us  tyhe  reason  for  the  fact  that  the  history  of  the 
world  is  mainly  the  history  of  temperate  regions  lying 
roughly  between  latitudes  30°  and  60°. 

II.  In  certain  places  rather  than  in  others  this  stimu- 
lus, owing  to  geographical  conditions,  is  able  to  have  its 
full  effect.  When  man  has  made  energy  his  own,  got 
it  under  control,  whether  in  the  primitive  state  by  eating 
food,  or  in  the  twentieth-century  manner  by  purchasing 
coal,  he  can  use  it  in  two  sets  of  ways.     He  can  use  it  in 


20   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

ways  by  which  he  controls  more  energy,  or  he  may  dissi- 
pate his  energy  uselessly  or  even  destroy  means  whereby 
it  may  be  used.  He  may  to  a  certain  extent  do  both. 
He  may  use  his  own  energy  to  take  that  of  someone  else. 
This  is,  of  course,  a  way  in  which  an  individual  is  able  to 
control  more  energy,  but  it  is  not  a  way  by  which  more 
energy  on  the  whole  is  controlled. 

It  is  obvious  that  energy  may  be  saved  most  effectively 
by  communities  living  in  peace,  owing  their  cohesion  to 
the  increased  power  of  saving  energy  brought  about  by 
their  union.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  such  com- 
munities will  appear  for  the  first  time  in  equatorial 
regions.  Not  only  is  there  no  stimulus  to  consider  the 
future,  but,  owing  to  the  consequent  naturally  low  state 
of  civilization,  it  is  not  likely  that  individual  men  or 
tribes  will  be  allowed  to  remain  in  peace.  Tribes  may 
exist  because  their  existence  is  due  to  controls  other 
than  geographical,  but  it  is  elsewhere  than  in  equatorial 
regions  that  the  tribe  can  expand  into  something  with 
more  complex  organization. 

Even  in  lands  where  stimulus  is  present,  protection 
is  necessary  also  that  expansion  may  take  place.  Pro- 
tection may  take  various  forms.  A  man  may  protect 
himself,  or  a  nation  may  protect  itself,  by  using  some 
of  its  energy  in  defence,  but  it  is  obviously  an  advantage 
if  protection  can  be  secured  without  the  expenditure  of 
this  energy,  i.  e.  if  it  can  be  secured  by  geographical 
conditions,  and  we  should  imagine  that  that  communitv, 
tribe  or  race  would  soonest  emerge  from  barbarism  which 
was  protected  most  completely. 

Nations  at  different  times  and  in  different  circum- 
stances have  been  protected  by  different  geographical 
conditions.     What  is  protection  in  one  age  may  not  be 


THE  BEGINNINGS  OF  HISTORY  21 

protection  in  another,  but  at  any  time  that  will  be  a 
protection  which  prevents  the  interference  of  other 
tribes  or  races ;  special  defences  will  be  those  geographi- 
cal features  which  men  cannot  cross  easily,  and  the 
greater  the  difficulty  man  finds  in  crossing  them,  or  the 
more  energy  he  expends  in  so  doing,  the  greater  will  be 
the  protection. 

Many  geographical  features  have  acted  as  defences  : 
rivers,  lakes,  mountains,  precipitous  ascents  and  swamps 
have  all  had  their  effect  in  protecting  small  communities, 
but  the  great  features  whose  power  of  protection  has 
affected  the  history  of  the  world  have  been  stretches  of 
plateau  so  high  as  to  be  too  cold  for  vegetation  to  grow, 
stretches  of  desert  too  dry  for  vegetation  to  grow,  and  the 
sea  which  provides  no  foothold.  Each  of  these  requires 
energy  to  cross  it,  and  supplies  no  basis  for  human  life. 
Before  any  of  these  could  be  crossed  successfully  a  con- 
siderable advance  in  civilization  must  have  been  made, 
so  that  in  early  times  the  protection  they  gave  was  very 
complete.  They  were  unknown  and  therefore  terrible 
things,  and  the  most  unknown  and  therefore  the  most 
terrible  of  the  three  was  the  sea. 

III.  The  action  of  these  geographical  conditions  as 
controls  must  be  briefly  referred  to  and  explained.  The 
whole  course  of  history — including  its  beginnings — has 
been  affected  by  the  distinctive  characters  of  individual 
men  and  races.  Some  of  these  characteristics  can  be 
traced  to  the  action  of  geographical  controls,  others 
cannot  be  so  traced  and  must  just  be  taken  for  granted. 
On  the  one  hand,  events  of  history,  with  all  the  results 
which  have  followed  from  them,  have  occurred  when 
they  did,  or  indeed  occurred  at  all,  because  of  the  power 
of  man  to  will  to  act ;   no  events  of  history  would  have 


22        GKOCRAPIIY    AND    WORLD   POWEB 

occurred  at  all  if  man  had  not  the  power  to  will  to 
act.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  men's  acts  are  conditioned 
by  their  surroundings  as  much  as  by  the  shape  of  their 
bodies,  and  the  Larger  tendencies  of  history  have  not 
to  any  great  extent  been  affected  by  the  distinctive 
characters  of  individuals.  In  the  long  run  the  geo- 
graphical conditions  are  more  powerful  than  the  genius 
of  individuals,  more  powerful  even  than  racial  charac- 
ters, unless  these  racial  characters  are  due  to  geographical 
controls.  History  began  where  it  did  because  of  the 
geographical  conditions. 

Now,  it  is  obvious  that  our  knowledge  of  the  earliest 
forms  of  civilization  must  be  wanting  or  at  the  most  very 
scanty.  From  the  nature  of  the  case,  there  can  be  no 
record  through  long  ages  of  the  gradual  advance  that 
must  have  taken  place  ere  men  emerged  from  the  con- 
dition of  savages.  The  most  that  may  be  looked  for 
is  that  we  may  find  relics  which,  because  they  have 
survived  long,  must  originally  have  been  fairly  strong ; 
they  must  be  relics  of  a  fairly  advanced  civilization. 

It  is  but  natural  that  the  civilization  of  which  we  first 
hear  had  reached  a  stage  which  could  not  have  been 
attained  to,  except  after  a  time  certainly  represented  by 
tens  of  thousands  of  years.  It  is  but  natural  that,  as 
with  a  tree,  the  growth  should  have  been  at  first  slow  as 
compared  with  the  growth  afterwards,  when  expansion  is 
possible  at  many  points.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that 
at  the  times  which  we  first  begin  to  consider  as  historic, 
history  of  a  primitive  kind  and  on  a  small  scale  had  been 
going  on  for  a  time  far  longer  than  all  the  rest  of  the 
course  of  history  has  taken.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that,  as  it  is  on  a  small  scale,  it  is  the  less  important 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  history  of  the  world. 


EGYPT  23 

This  slowness  of  growth  is  the  natural  result  of  the 
control  exercised  by  geography.  Just  because  geo- 
graphical conditions  are  controls  and  not  forces  they 
take  much  longer  time  to  make  their  effect  felt  than  do 
forces,  but  in  the  long  run  the  results  of  these  controls 
are  evident,  perhaps  all  the  more  effectively.  Because 
certain  conditions  exist,  and  certain  other  conditions 
do  not  exist,  it  is  found  in  the  long  run  better  to  act  in 
a  particular  way.  It  takes  a  longer  time  for  a  man  or 
race  to  find  this  out  than  to  be  told  it,  but  there  is  this 
advantage  :  by  finding  it  out,  it  is  certain  that  the 
intellectual  level  has  been  reached  which  is  necessary 
to  use  the  discovery  intelligently.  There  is  no  danger 
of  an  artificial  civilization — a  cram-civilization — being 
imposed  on  the  race,  so  that  more  harm  than  good  is 
done. 

To  sum  up  what  has  been  said,  we  should  expect  to 
find  the  first  dawnings  of  civilization  in  some  place  where 
life  might  be  sustained  comparatively  easily,  but  where 
the  cycle  is  not  the  day,  i.  e.  some  place  where  work 
for  the  present  and  future  is  necessary.  In  addition, 
we  should  expect  to  find  the  earliest  civilized  races  in 
some  spot  where  a  community  large  enough  to  be  some- 
thing more  than  a  family  or  tribe,  yet  small  enough  to 
form  and  feel  itself  a  whole,  would  be  afforded  a  consider- 
able measure  of  protection  against  foes  whose  powers 
of  destruction  were  greater  than  their  powers  of  con- 
struction. Also  when  first  we  begin  to  know  of  these 
races,  it  is  to  be  expected  that  many  ages  have  passed 
since  they  emerged  from  savagery. 

Now,  in  Egypt  we  see  a  land  with  a  genial  climate. 
Though  rainless,  and  consequently  protected  on  either 
hand  by  desert,  it  has  a  supply  of  water.     This  water 


24       GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

supply,  though  seasonal,  is  also  constant.  These  seem- 
ing contradictions  are  explained  only  if  Egyptian  geo- 
graphy is  understood.  The  Nile  has  two  sources,  one 
in  the  region  of  constant  equatorial  rain,  from  which  a 
supply,  equalized  by  the  existence  of  lakes  and  swamps, 
is  rendered  so  steady  that  little  variation  in  flow  is  ex- 


July 


Jan 


RAINFALL   IN   THE   NILE    BASIN. 

The  maps  show  that  the  southern  tributaries  of  the  Nile  receive 
water  both  in  summer  and  in  winter,  while  the  eastern  tributaries 
receive  a  great  deal  of  water  only  in  summer. 

perienced  all  through  the  year.  The  other  source  is  in  the 
highland  region  of  Abyssinia,  a  land  with  a  seasonal 
range  of  rainfall,  so  that  in  late  spring  and  early  sum- 
mer deluges  descend  to  the  plain  and  from  the  plain  to 
the  dry  land  farther  north. 

Egypt  is  the  Delta  of  the  Nile  and  the  lower  Nile 


EGYPT 


25 


Valley  for  some  700  miles  from  its  mouth — a  narrow 
ribbon,  for  the  most  part  ten  miles  wide,  following  the 


EGYPT, 


course  of  the  great  river  to  the  sea.     It  is  watered 
by  the  river  and  protected  by  the  all-but-impassable 


26   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

desert.  That  protection  is  even  more  complete  than  it 
seems.  The  Nile  in  its  lower  course  flows  through  a 
land  of  limestone.  Out  of  this  it  has  first  worn  a  valley, 
and  then  filled  the  valley  with  alluvium  brought  by  the 


li'.!.!!f;!::i!'.i;ii;in.!u 
\Limestone 

EGYPTIAN   GEOLOGY. 
The  Lower  Valley  of  the  Nile  begins  where  the  limestone  begins. 

floods  from  Abyssinia.  South  of  the  modern  Aswan, 
however,  it  flows  through  sandstone,  below  which  are 
great  masses  of  hard  rock.  The  river  has  here  for  great 
distances  worn  no  valley  but  merely  gorges  separated 
by  cataracts.     A  yard  or  two  from  the  river's  side  there 


EGYPT  27 

is  bare  desert ;  practically  nothing  will  grow ;  there  is 
no  inducement  to  settle,  and  Egypt  is  shut  off  from  the 
south  almost  as  completely  as  from  the  east  and  west. 

On  the  north  there  is  the  sea,  and  in  days  when  the 
sea  was  unknown  it  formed  as  great  a  protection  as  the 
desert.  In  no  other  land  do  we  find  such  conditions, 
suited  in  so  extraordinary  a  degree  for  the  nurture  of  an 
early  civilization. 

From  the  first  scraps  that  we  can  learn  of  the  long 
past  history  of  Egypt,  we  see  it  occupied  by  a  race  of 
men  who,  at  any  rate,  are  not  of  the  lowest  order  of 
savages.  They  appear,  however,  only  to  give  place  to 
another  race  certainly  with  a  higher  civilization,  but  of 
whom  we  know  little  else.  These  people  lived  peaceably 
in  the  Nile  Valley  probably  for  2000  years  before  those 
whom  we  call  the  Ancient  Egyptians  appeared  on  the 
scene. 

The  Egyptians  in  their  turn,  when  they  began  to  rule 
the  land,  about  4500  B.C.,  absorbed  the  civilization  of 
those  whom  they  found  in  possession,  and  compara- 
tively quickly  carried  it  to  a  still  higher  plane,  so  that 
by  3700  B.C.,  when  the  4th  Dynasty  of  Egyptian  kings 
ruled  the  whole  country  from  the  first  cataract  to  the 
sea,  a  very  considerable  advance  had  been  made,  and 
the  people  had  reached  a  degree  of  organization  which 
rendered  possible  the  building  of  the  greatest  pyramids. 

Then,  as  in  the  history  of  all  countries,  there  was 
an  apparent  decline.  The  machinery  of  government 
seems  to  have  become  antiquated,  so  that  during  many 
dynasties  the  power  of  the  central  government  became 
enfeebled ;  the  subordinate  rulers  of  the  several  "  nomes  " 
or  states  into  which  the  long  narrow  Nile  Valley  was 
naturally  divided  came  to  gain  more  and  more  power  at 


28        <;K<><;i: AIMIY    AND    WORLD    POWEB 

the  expense  of  the  king,  and  there  was  an  increasing 
tendency  to  anarchy,  which  affected  the  general  advance. 
Bui  the  probability  is  that  though  the  advance  was  slow, 
it  continued  fairly  steadily,  especially  in  the  distinctively 
Egyptian  forms  of  civilization,  which  depended  on  im- 
provements in  methods  of  irrigation.  The  seat  of  the 
centralized  government  during  these  early  times  was 
always  near  the  head  of  the  Delta,  so  it  was  natural  that 
when  one  of  the  smaller  states  grew  into  importance  by 
extending  its  influence  over  neighbouring  states,  the 
new  power  should  be  far  from  that  central  control. 

Hence  when  Egypt  again,  about  2500  B.C.,  attained  to  a 
position  of  greatness  under  the  kings  of  the  12th  Dynasty, 
it  was  Thebes  rather  than  Herakleopolis  or  Memphis 
that  was  the  focus  of  Egyptian  life.  Under  these  kings 
the  prosperity  of  the  country  increased,  great  works  in 
connection  with  irrigation  were  carried  out,  and  wealth 
became  great,  so  that  in  some  respects  the  country 
reached  its  highest  developments  at  this  time. 

Thereafter  the  rule  again  became  weak,  and  eventu- 
ally, without  any  formal  invasion  the  power  fell  into  the 
hands  of  the  Hyksos,  tribes  who  had  either  been  attracted 
to  the  Delta  by  the  advantage  of  life  there,  or  forced 
by  other  causes  to  find  a  refuge  from  their  enemies. 
These  tribes  in  the  main  adopted  the  civilization  of  the 
land,  and  were  absorbed  by  the  people  among  whom  they 
lived.  The  Princes  of  Thebes,  again  partly  because 
they  were  far  from  the  Delta,  the  seat  of  the  Hyksos 
power,  having  dispossessed  these  rulers  and  driven  some 
of  the  people  from  the  land,  took  the  lead  in  the  country. 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Egypl  invaders, 
though  they  came  in  peace,  had  been  driven  out  of  the 
land,  and  for  the  first  time  Egypt  began,  about  1600  B.C., 


EGYPT  29 

a  career  of  foreign  conquest,  under  the  kings  of  the 
18th  Dynasty,  the  Thotmes  and  Amenheteps,  which 
was  continued  till  Egyptian  power  extended  northwards 
to  the  mountains  of  Armenia.  On  three  occasions  in 
Egyptian  history  points  are  reached  which  stand  out 
as  Golden  Ages,  not  only  because  the  gradual  advance 
in  civilization  was  more  marked  at  these  periods,  but 
also  because  there  was  added  the  saving  in  energy  due 
to  the  centralization  of  government — a  saving  to  which 
was  partly  due  that  other  more  rapid  advance.  In 
material  wealth  and  prosperity  this  third  Golden  Age 
marks  the  highest  point  reached  by  Egyptian  civiliza- 
tion. Thenceforward,  though  the  Rameses  were  still 
to  come,  Egyptian  power  and  even  civilization  were 
on  the  downward  path.  Other  conditions  arose,  some 
non-geographical,  which  modified  the  control  exercised 
by  the  geographical  conditions  which  up  to  this  time 
had  been  of  most  effect.  Other  geographical  conditions 
began  to  exercise  their  controlling  effect.  When  Senna- 
cherib defeated  the  "  kings  of  Egypt,"  it  was  but  the 
first  of  many  invasions  which  brought  Egypt  under  the 
rule  of  many  different  nations,  Assyrians,  Babylonians, 
Persians,  Greeks,  Romans,  Arabs,  Turks  and  British. 
Since  330  B.C.  Egypt  has  never  been  independent. 

It  was  not  to  the  inherent  excellence  of  its  inhabitants 
that  the  advance  of  the  Egyptian  state  is  due,  for  not- 
withstanding the  extent  to  which  the  land  is  protected, 
we  find  that  two,  if  not  three,  separate  races  successively 
inhabited  the  land  in  times  known  to  history,  and  each 
possessed  a  high  standard  of  civilization  for  the  times 
in  which  they  lived,  and  reached  much  higher  levels  of 
living  than  did  the  inhabitants  of  other  lands  at  the 
same  time. 


30        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

It  was  the  geographical  conditions  already  referred  to, 
and  specially  the  exceedingly  protected  state  of  Egypt, 
that  allowed  the  advance.  The  land  was  invaded,  but 
the  length  of  the  period  and  the  fewness  of  the  invasions 
must  be  noticed.  It  is  probable  that  for  4000  years,  or 
1500  years  longer  than  the  time  that  separates  us  from 
them,  Egyptians  never  saw  an  invading  host  in  their 
midst.  Except  for  a  period  of  a  few  hundred  years  native 
kings  ruled  the  land.  It  was  only  after  2500  B.C.  that  the 
native  monarchy  appeared  worn  out,  and  gave  place  for 
a  time  to  rulers  of  foreign  extraction,  and  after  these 
were  driven  out  by  the  native  kings  of  Upper  Egypt,  who 
had  only  acknowledged  a  suzerain  and  had  not  been  de- 
posed, there  remained  1000  years  of  Egyptian  empire 
before  she  finally  gave  place  to  other  civilizations  to 
which  she  had  contributed  not  a  little  of  the  original 
stimulus  which  brought  them  into  existence. 

Think  of  the  histories  of  all  the  states  of  the  world. 
There  is  not  one  that  lasted  for  half  the  time  free  from 
invasion.  The  length  of  time  during  which  the  state 
lasted  was  due  to  this  absence  of  invasion  or  the  possi- 
bility of  invasion,  which  in  turn  was  due  to  the  protection 
afforded  by  the  desert — a  protection  which  during  long 
ages  allowed  of  slow  natural  growth  through  different 
forms  of  civilization,  without  the  disturbing  effects  of 
interference  from  without  during  periods  of  transition. 

And  when  Egypt  fell  from  her  proud  estate  geo- 
graphical conditions  still  exercised  their  control  on  her 
history,  and  not  the  least  of  them  was  that  same  protect- 
ing influence  of  the  desert,  for  in  the  4000  years  during. 
/which  Egypt  stood  alone  her  inhabitants  so  learned  to  ) 
[  trust  to  that  protection  that  they  never  have  been  able 
\to  stand  against  opposition.     When  other  geographical 


EGYPT  31 

conditions  produced  more  advanced  civilizations,  Egypt 
became  indeed  the  broken  reed  that  the  far-sighted 
Hebrew  prophet  recognized  her  to  be. 

The  particular  forms  of  civilization  which  are  char- 
acteristically Egyptian  also  show  most  clearly  the  effect 
of  the  geographical  controls.  It  was  natural  that  people 
who  inhabited  the  Nile  Valley  should  have  learned  how 
energy  might  be  saved  by  means  of  irrigation,  but  it  was 
not  only  the  material  side  of  life  that  was  affected.  The 
mental  attitude  is  perhaps  better  shown  in  another  way, 
for  it  is  significant  that  the  new  idea  of  a  future  to 
be  provided  for  was  so  drilled  into  the  people  by  the 
seasonal  variation,  that  the  chief  monuments  which  are 
left  of  them  are  temples  and  tombs — temples,  essentially 
means  by  which  the  living  could  find  out  when  they 
might  expect  flood  and  drought,  seedtime  and  harvest, 
and  tombs  in  which  their  frail  bodies  might  be  preserved 
for  countless  ages ;  while  their  great  literary  epic  is  the 
"  Book  of  the  Dead,"  which  shows  the  Egyptians  to  be 
a  nation  given  up  to  the  consideration  of  the  future 
fife. 


CHAPTER  III 

MARSH    AND   STEPPE  I     BABYLONIA   AND   ASSYRIA 

We  have  seen  that  the  first  dawnings  of  civilization 
are  found  in  Egypt,  because  there  is  found  a  protected 
land  having  abundance  of  water  and  warmth.  It  is 
uncertain  at  what  time  this  land  began  to  have  anything 
we  may  call  history,  but  by  5000  B.C.  the  peoples  inhabit- 
ing it  had  advanced  a  long  way  from  the  condition  of 
primitive  savages,  so  far,  indeed,  as  to  be  able  to  use 
stone  for  building  tombs,  if  not  houses. 

We  may  now  look  at  our  maps  to  see  whether  we  can 
find  any  other  region  in  the  world  which  may  have  an 
early  history  because  its  conditions  are  similar  to  those 
in  Egypt.  We  may  neglect  the  latitudes  near  the  poles 
and  near  the  equator,  because  there  we  have  found  that 
either  enough  energy  is  not  present  or  there  is  no  stimu- 
lus to  use  it.  As  we  have  learned  that  the  desert  forms 
a  great  protection,  we  naturally  look  at  the  desert  belt 
to  see  whether  there  is  any  other  district  with  a  supply 
of  water  to  render  it  fertile.  West  of  the  Nile  in  all  the 
Sahara  there  is  nothing  to  compare  with  Egypt.  East- 
ward the  desert  belt  trends  northward  through  the 
centre  of  Asia,  which  is  dry  because  the  winds  have 
parted  with  their  moisture  on  passing  over  the  bordering 
mountains.  But  the  desert  is  not  so  unmitigated  as 
round  Egypt,  nor  are  the  climatic  conditions  so  favoi" 
able.     The  advantages  of  Egypt  are  unique;   elsewh 

32 


MARSH  AND  STEPPE 


33 


you  may  find  protected  lands,  lands  subject  to  seasonal 
change,  lands  with  abundance  of  water  or  warmth,  but 
you  will  find  none  in  which  they  are  all  united  so 
advantageously  as  in  Egypt.     Egypt  stands  alone. 

Elsewhere  there  is  no  river  like  the  Nile,  with  two 
sources,  one  in  the  region  of  constant  rain,  one  in  the 
region  of  seasonal  rain,  but  we  shall  find  flowing  from  the 


THE   DESERT   BELT   OF   THE 
OLD   WOELD. 


belt  in  which  light  winter  rains  fall,  two  rivers,  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates,  whose  sources  lie  in  lands  high  enough 
to  provide  in  summer  water  from  the  melting  of  the 
snows  which  have  fallen  in  the  previous  winter.  Hence, 
while  water  may  be  obtained  at  all  seasons,  seasonal 
changes  do  occur.  It  might  thus  seem  that  the  con- 
ditions are  similar  to  those  in  Egypt,  but  there  are 
r!?rences  which  have  materially  affected  the  history. 
*4   jgypt  the  Nile  flows  in  a  narrow  valley  sunk  steeply 

D 


MARSH  AND   STEPPE  35 

some  hundreds  of  feet  below  the  level  of  the  desert ;  the 
distance  between  barren  waste  and  abounding  fertility 
is  to  be  measured  in  yards;  the  lands  within  reach  of 
the  river  produce  vegetation;  elsewhere,  as  no  rain 
falls,  there  is  utter  desert.  The  Tigris  and  Euphrates, 
on  the  other  hand,  have  not  valleys  sunk  far  below  the 
surrounding  level.  The  lower  part,  indeed,  from  a  little 
north  of  the  latitude  where  Bagdad  now  stands,  is  a 
broad  plain  of  alluvium  brought  down  by  the  rivers. 
Nor  is  the  whole  lowland  altogether  rainless.  Thus  the 
Tigris  and  Euphrates  do  not  flow  through  deserts. 
Deserts  there  are,  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other.  On 
the  south-west,  it  is  true,  are  the  great  stretches  of  the 
Syrian  desert  and  of  the  Nefud,  but  it  is  only  here 
and  there  that  they  approach  at  all  close  to  the  river; 
generally  there  is  a  belt  of  steppcland  between.  On 
the  north-east  we  find  deserts  on  the  central  portion  of 
the  Iranian  plateau,  but  before  even  the  mountain 
margins  are  reached  there  is  a  stretch  of  steppeland,  not 
indeed  to  be  cultivated  except  in  favoured  spots,  yet 
not  altogether  uninhabitable,  while  the  valleys  of  the 
mountains  may  collectively  support  a  considerable 
population.  The  north-western  portion  of  the  lowland 
is  again  steppeland,  so  dry  between  the  rivers  as  to 
be  called  desert,  but  with  more  moisture  under  the 
mountains  and  along  the  valleys. 

We  see,  then,  that  Egyptian  conditions  exist  in  a 
modified  form.  There  is,  however,  another  condition 
present  which  was  also  present  in  Egypt,  though  in 
Egypt  its  effect  was  masked  by  the  supreme  importance 
of  the  desert.  As  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  approach 
the  sea  and  flow  over  the  flat  alluvium,  they  spread  out 
in  swamps  and  marshes  which  form  a  very  considerable 


3G        GEOGRAPHY    AND    WOULD    POWER 

protection  on  three  sides.  Extensive  swamps  form  very 
effective  protection  for  small  communities;  land  may 
be  traversed  on  foot,  water  may  be  crossed  by  boats, 
I > 1 1 1  swamps  are  to  a  very  large  extent  impassable. 
Thus  within  the  circle  of  marshes  an  early  civilization 
was  possible,  all  the  more  because  the  rivers  themselves 
and  their  many  interlacing  branches  afforded  considerable 
protection,  and  because  beyond  the  rivers  and  the  swamps 
there  was  a  belt  of  land  only  thinly  inhabited  and  in 
parts  merging  into  utter  desert.  As  in  Egypt,  too,  the 
sea  kept  off  enemies;  thus  on  the  south-east,  the  sea, 
so  much  greater  in  extent  than  now  that  the  Tigris  and 
Euphrates  flowed  to  the  sea  by  separate  mouths,  was  an 
effective  protection. 

This  land  is  Babylonia.  Again,  as  in  Egypt,  we  see 
that  it  is  the  place  with  its  conditions  that  is  the  im- 
portant fact  in  its  history,  for  though  little  is  certain  of 
Babylonia  for  the  4000  years  after  7000  B.C.,  it  is  known 
that  two  races  were  concerned  in  the  raising  of  the 
civilization  in  the  form  in  which  we  know  it,  and  that 
the  earlier  race  had  learned  many  of  the  arts  of  life  ere 
they  came  into  contact  with  the  later. 

The  geographical  protections  were  sufficient  in  a 
primitive  age  to  keep  off  enemies  and  allow  of  develop- 
ment; they  had  also  a  tendency  to  divide  Babylonia 
into  smaller  parts.  Thus  it  is  that,  though  a  high  state 
of  civilization  existed  in  Babylonia  as  early  as,  or  even 
earlier  than,  the  corresponding  stage  was  reached  in 
Egypt,  yet  a  thousand  years  passed  from  the  time  Egypt 
was  welded  into  a  single  state,  before  the  first  Baby- 
lonian Empire  arose  under  Sargon  of  Accad,  about 
3800  B.C.  Before  that  time  the  Babylonians  had  passed 
a    peaceful    agricultural    existence    in    various    small 


BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA  37 

independent  states.  Secure  from  savage  foes  behind 
their  defences,  they  had  very  slowly  through  thousands 
of  years  evolved  higher  ways  of  living.  They  had 
learned  how  to  make  bricks,  they  had  built  houses  and 
(owns,  they  had  made  canals  earlier  than  had  the 
Egyptians,  but  they  had  not  existed  under  one  ruler. 
Even  after  Sargon's  time,  for  another  thousand  years 
the  tendency  seems  to  have  been  to  consider  the  polity 
as  a  loose  confederacy  of  states  bound  together  by 
common  interests,  rather  than  a  single  state  under  a 
common  government. 

As  the  conditions  of  living  improved,  it  was  only 
natural  that  the  Babylonians  should  have  entered  into 
relations  with  their  neighbours,  and  that  a  civilization 
originally  based  on  agriculture  should  gradually  have 
given  way  to  one  in  which  trade  had  a  considerable  part. 
This  had  important  consequences.  As  long  as  the 
Babylonians  remained  within  their  defences  and  settled 
petty  squabbles  among  themselves,  the  tendency  was 
to  progress  free  from  interference  from  without,  but 
expansion  beyond  these  defences  brought  out  the  weak- 
nesses of  the  position,  and  the  history  of  the  lowlands 
of  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  from  2500  B.C.  onwards  is 
the  history  of  the  endeavours  of  surrounding  peoples 
to  become  possessed  of  the  fertile  heart  land.  The 
swamps  were  sufficient  to  keep  off  savages  in  a  primitive 
age,  when  almost  any  protection  is  complete,  but  they 
were  not  impassable,  especially  after  their  area  had  been 
greatly  reduced  by  the  labours  of  the  Babylonians. 
Beyond  the  swamps  were  districts  habitable  and  in- 
habited by  races  who,  after  being  brought  into  contact 
with  a  higher  ideal  of  living,  themselves  became  half- 
civilized,  and  looked  with  envious  eyes  on  the  fertile 


38        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

lands  within  their  grasp.  Race  after  race  held  Baby- 
lonia and  ruled  the  Babylonians,  but  the  native  dynasties 
were  few  and  unimportant.  On  the  mountains  to  the 
east  bordering  the  Iranian  plateau  were  the  Elamites; 
on  the  continuation  northward  of  the  same  highlands 
were  the  Kassites.  Each  held  the  land  of  Babylonia 
for  a  longer  or  shorter  period,  and  such  of  them  as  de- 
scended to  the  lowlands  adopted  the  civilization  they 
found  there,  became  separated  from  their  kin  among  the 
hills,  and  were  gradually  lost  amid  the  other  peoples  of 
the  plain. 

Later,  a  power  from  the  steppeland  on  the  north-west 
came  to  the  front.  Probably  founded  by  the  Baby- 
lonians during  the  period  of  expansion,  Assur  or  Assyria 
on  the  Middle  Tigris  for  long  was  tributary  to  Babylonia. 
But  separated  by  a  considerable  stretch  of  country, 
partly  steppe,  partly  even  desert,  the  tendency  was  for 
Assyria  to  become  independent  and  dominate  the  more 
productive  land  under  the  mountains,  so  that  by  the 
time  Babylonia  began  to  be  controlled  by  foreign  kings, 
Assyria  was  already  a  force  to  be  reckoned  with. 

As  long  as  Babylonia  was  the  centre  of  civilization 
the  history  of  Mesopotamia  was,  in  the  main,  peaceful. 
Its  inhabitants  depended  on  agriculture  and  trade,  and 
there  was  little  necessity  or  inducement  to  embark  on 
conquest.  Even  when  the  dynasties  from  the  north- 
eastern hills  ruled  Babylonia,  its  essential  peacefulness 
asserted  itself,  but  when  Assyria  had  the  upper  hand  the 
condition  of  things  was  changed.        « 

The  difference  is  due  to  geographical  conditions. 
Except  in  a  small  area  Assyria  was  not  suited  for 
agriculture,  and  there  could  be  no  great  extension  of 
that  area.     In  Babylonia  the  land  is  flat  and  little  above 


BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYBIA  39 

the  level  of  the  streams,  so  that  canals  for  irrigation  and 
commerce  could  easily  be  constructed,  but  in  Assyria 
the  rivers  for  the  most  part  lie  just  too  far  below  the 
level  of  the  land  to  be  of  much  service.  The  district 
suited  for  irrigation  and  agriculture  enjoyed  a  fertility 
which  passed  into  a  proverb,  but  it  was  too  small  to 
support  a  large  population.  Nor  had  it  more  protec- 
tion than  was  afforded  by  the  surrounding  steppe,  which 
becomes  dry  enough  to  be  called  desert  only  on  the 
south-west.  Its  peoples,  if  they  are  to  be  defended, 
must  defend  themselves.  Though  probably  not  Baby- 
lonians themselves,  they  brought  from  Babylon  a 
civilization  in  advance  of  the  times,  and  were  able  to 
defend  themselves  successfully  against  their  enemies. 
For  defence,  a  strong  centralized  government  is  an 
advantage,  so  from  the  beginning  Assyria,  ruled  from 
Nineveh,  was  a  single  monarchy,  a  state  which  grew  by 
conquering  the  surrounding  tribes  less  advanced  in  arts 
of  war.  By  1400  B.C.  it  was  able  to  give  up  the  farce 
of  allegiance  to  Babylon,  and  was  even  able  to  invade 
Babylonia. 

Fighting  was  bred  into  the  Assyrians.  The  lesson 
they  had  learned  under  the  stimulus  of  geographical 
conditions  was  that  they  must  take  energy  from  others, 
as  there  was  not  enough  available  to  serve  their  needs. 
Babylonia,  the  mountains  on  the  east,  Syria,  Palestine 
and  Phoenicia  were  all  laid  under  tribute.  But  for  long 
they  evolved  no  system  of  government  to  make  the 
most  of  captured  provinces.  All  the  neighbouring 
states  were  overrun  when  they  rebelled  against  the 
power  of  Assyria,  but  they  were  left  to  themselves  while 
they  paid  tribute,  or  in  times  when  the  central  authority 
was  weak.     It  was  only  as  late  as  750  B.C.,  under  what 


40        GEOGRAPHY    AND    WORLD   POWEB 

is  called  the  Second  Assyrian  Empire,  that  any  attempt- 
was  made  to  consolidate  conquests  and  use  the  subject 
states  to  the  best  advantage,  so  that  the  whole  trade  of 
the  Eastern  world  might  be  controlled. 

This  was  a  somewhat  higher  ideal  of  government,  but 
the  attempt  to  found  a  trading  empire  by  cruel  conquest 
was  as  unsuccessful  as  the  attempt  to  continue  a  trading 
empire  without  being  prepared  to  defend  it.  First  one 
tributary  state  and  then  another  revolted.  Some  revolts 
were  put  down,  but  wherever  Assyrian  armies  were  not, 
there  rebellion  broke  out  afresh.  Ringed  round  by  races 
united  in  their  hatred  of  a  conqueror  if  in  nothing  else, 
Assyria  was  attacked  and  utterly  destroyed. 

Babylonia,  having  at  length  learned  something  of  the 
value  of  united  action,  for  a  short  time  raised  an  empire 
on  the  ruins  of  Assyria,  under  a  dynasty  founded  by  a 
former  viceroy ;  but  on  the  heights  of  the  Median 
plateau  a  new  danger  threatened.  Brought  into  contact 
with  the  outer  world  by  the  trading  schemes  of  Assyria, 
the  Medes  beyond  the  border  mountains  learned  of  the 
lowlands,  and  at  length  descended  to  the  plain  and  made 
it  all  their  own. 

/  In  all  this  history  the  geographical  control  is  evident, 
/but  the  history  is  not  so  simple  as  that  of  Egypt,  because 
the  geographical  conditions  are  more  complex.  The 
main  facts  are,  however,  obvious.  At  first  Babylonia 
had  the  opportunity  to  evolve  a  civilization  of  its  own 
because  to  climatic  conditions,  at  once  providing  suffi- 
cient energy  and  reacting  on  the  minds  of  men  towards 
a  saving  of  energy,  there  was  added  adequate  protection. 
Then  Assyria  took  the  lead  because  the  geographical 
^ conditions  stimulated  her  peoples  to  protect  themselves, 
fust  as  long-continued  exposure  to  protected  conditions 


BABYLONIA  AND  ASSYRIA  41 

evolved  races  in  Egypt  and  Babylonia  almost  incapable 
of  protecting  themselves,  so  continued  exposure  to  con- 
ditions requiring  self-defence  reacted  in  producing  races 
in  whom  fighting  for  its  own  sake  was  an  essential  of  life. 

Since  Nineveh  fell,  the  geographical  conditions  have 
continued  to  act,  for  Assyria  having  failed  to  set  up  an 
empire  based  on  force,  the  whole  lowland  of  the  Tigris 
and  Euphrates  has  been  a  unit  of  which  the  most  im- 
portant part  has  been  Babylonia.  But,  as  in  Egypt, 
the  lesson  taught  by  thousands  of  years  was  difficult  to 
unlearn.  The  tendency  of  things  to  continue  as  they 
have  been,  is  tremendously  strong,  and  Babylonia  has 
never  been  independent.  To  Elamites,  Kassites  and 
Assyrians  succeeded  Medes,  Persians,  Greeks,  Romans, 
Arabs  and  Turks,  so  that,  after  3000  years  in  which 
its  original  defences  have  counted  for  nothing  to  men 
who  have  reached  a  higher  standard  of  living,  and  in 
which  it  has  lain  open  to  whatever  people,  chose  to  take 
it  and  make  what  they  could  for  the  time,  there  is  no 
wonder  that  Babylonia  is  now  little  more  than  its 
original  swamp. 

Yet  the  land  is  able  as  of  old  to  produce  its  fruits  and 
on  a  greater  scale  than  in  the  past ;  vast  reservoirs,  as 
in  Egypt,  may  hold  up  water  from  times  of  plenty  for 
times  of  scarcity,  and  more  effective  provision  may  be 
made  for  the  diversion  of  the  floods  which,  uncontrolled, 
cause  these  swamps.  Under  wise  rule  it  might  again  be 
a  garden. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   WAYS  :     PALESTINE    AND   PHOENICIA 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  two  centres  of  civilization 
arose  in  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia  because  the  geographi- 
cal conditions  in  these  two  regions  gave  the  people 
living  in  them  an  advantage,  on  the  whole,  over  their 
fellows  elsewhere.  The  rise  of  these  two  centres,  and 
especially  of  the  latter,  affected  the  inhabitants  of  other 
districts  near  them.  Naturally  those  peoples  inhabiting 
the  lands  between  the  two  were  affected  not,  perhaps,  as 
greatly  as  others  at  any  one  time,  but  more  continually 
and  in  the  long  run  more  effectively. 

Though  there  lies  on  either  side  of  Egypt  an  almost 
impassable  desert,  yet  at  the  north-eastern  corner,  along 
the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  desert  has  a  fringe 
of  coast  which  is.  not  so  desert  as  the  rest,  and  shades 
farther  north  into  a  strip  of  fertile,  fairly  watered,  low 
coast  land  and  inland  hills,  the  home  of  Philistines, 
Hebrews  and  Phoenicians.  This  district  forms  a 
connecting  link  between  the  two  great  early  centres  of 
civilization,  and  owes  its  supreme  importance  to  that 
fact. 

Thus  in  the  study  of  advance  in  civilization,  of  history, 
we  are  introduced  to  another  geographical  control.  Not 
only  do  men  live  in  places  where  existence  is  easiest, 

42 


THE  WAY  43 

in  the  sense  that  more  energy  may  be  used,  but  they 
move  in  the  directions  in  which  movement  is  easiest, 
where  least  energy  is  expended  in  motion.  Movement 
is  always  along  the  lines  of  least  resistance,  as  we  say. 
When  roads  exist  men  pass  along  them,  but  long  before 
roads  existed  there  were  routes  along  which,  owing  to 
geographical  distributions,  movement  was  easier  than 
elsewhere.  These  are  ways,  not  roads.  A  road  is  so 
many  feet  or  yards  wide,  a  way  has  not  any  definite 
width.  There  is  a  way  from  the  door  of  a  room  to  the 
fireplace,  the  way  one  walks  avoiding  any  obstacles 
between,  but  there  is  no  road.  There  may  be  one  way 
and  many  roads.  The  way  to  Scotland  from  London 
lies  northwards  between  the  Humber  and  the  Pennines, 
through  the  plain  of  York  and  the  Newcastle  plain, 
round  the  coast  to  Edinburgh.  The  Great  North  Road 
was,  and  is,  one  form  of  it ;  the  Great  Northern  Railway 
with  its  allies  is  the  corresponding  Railroad.  There  is 
no  road  from  Mesopotamia  to  Egypt,  but  there  are  very 
definite  ways  which  for  part  of  the  distance  become  one. 
It  was  comparatively  easy  to  pass  from  Babylon  up  the 
Euphrates  valley,  then  across  to  the  valley  of  the  Orontes 
between  Lebanon  and  Anti-Lebanon,  down  the  valleys 
of  the  Leontes  and  Upper  Jordan,  across  the  plain  of  Es- 
draelon,  past  Megiddo  or  Armageddon,  the  meeting-place 
of  the  armies  of  -this  little  world,  through  the  land  of  the 
Philistines  by  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  across 
the  narrow  strip  of  desert  to  Egypt.  It  was  less  easy, 
but  shorter  and  thus  more  economical  of  energy  for 
traders  who  had  reached  a  certain  stage  of  civilization, 
to  cross  the  narrow  northern  end  of  the  Syrian  desert  to- 
the  oasis  of  Damascus,  the  jumping-off  place  for  crossing 
the  desert  towards  the  east  or  the  landing-place  on  the 


44   GEOGRAPHY'  AND  WORLD  POWER 

west,  and  the  essential  part  of  Syria.    However  they 
came,  they  all  passed  through  Esdraelon  and  Philiatia. 

This  Way  did  not  spring  into  importance  at  once ;  its 
importance  grew  with  the  growth  in  importance  of  the 
two  lands  between  which  it  lay.  Nor  must  it  be  thought 
of  as  having  even  the  traffic  of  a  country  road  in  Eng- 
land; but  it  was  the  route  taken  by  far  the  greatest 
portion  of  such  trade  as  was  carried  on  in  the  world  at 
that  time. 

Naturally  we  need  not  expect  the  lands  through 
which  "  the  Way  "  passed  to  have  a  history  as  early  as 
had  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia.  Between  these  there  lies 
a  wide  space,  so  that  they  must  have  had  a  civilization 
of  a  high  order,  and  their  influence  must  have  been 
extensive,  before  they  came  into  contact  with  each  other. 
Even  then  the  first  contact  seems  to  have  been  purely 
accidental.  In  the  times  of  the  4th  Dynasty  in  Egypt 
and  of  Sargon  of  Accad,  i.  e.  about  3800  B.C.,  expeditions 
from  both  lands  were  sent  to  the  deserts  of  Sinai  to  work 
the  copper  mines  or  obtain  stone  suitable  for  sculpture. 
But  by  "  the  Way  "  in  course  of  time  commerce  took 
place  and  armies  marched,  so  that  for  3000  years,  during 
which  Egvpt  and  Mesopotamia  were  the  important  lands 
in  the  world,  these  fertile  coasts  of  the  southern  Levant 
assumed  an  importance  out  of  all  proportion  to  their 
size.  Since  this  home  of  Philistines  and  Israelites  was 
the  door  between  the  two  empires  of  the  Ancient  World, 
it  is  little  wonder  that  these  peoples  figure  so  largely  in 
history,  though  Palestine  itself  is  so  small  that  Elijah  ran, 
as  we  are  told,  from  end  to  end  in  a  day. 

Egypt  and  Mesopotamia  at  various  times  claimed  the 
right  of  suzerainty,  but  even  when  it  was  claimed  the 
control  was  not  always  effective,  and  for  the  greater 


PALESTINE  45 

part  of  the  time  we  are  considering,  the  lands  through 
which  "  the  Way  "  passed  were  occupied  by  peoples  who 
owed  allegiance  to  none  and,  at  first  continually  at  war 
with  each  other,  were  gradually  civilized  by  recognition 
of  the  advantages  obtained  from  trade  passing  through 
their  midst.  It  was  only  about  1000  B.C.,  in  the  times 
of  David  and  Solomon,  when  Egypt  and  Assyria  had 
declined  in  power,  that  the  hillmen  of  Palestine,  the 
Israelites,  as  opposed  to  the  coastmen,  the  Philistines, 
held  "  the  Way  "  so  effectively  as  to  be  able  to  establish 
an  empire  comparable  to  the  other  empires  of  the  Ancient 
World.  When  that  kingdom  split  in  two,  it  lost  effective 
control  of  "  the  Way,"  and  became  again  merely  a  little 
hill  state  in  its  neighbourhood — centrally  placed,  indeed, 
but  not  politically  effective.  Leaning  first  to  one  and 
then  to  another  of  the  two  great  empires,  the  kingdom 
of  the  Hebrews  was  finally  crushed  in  the  struggle 
between  them. 

When  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia  gave  place  to  others, 
then  the  geographical  importance  of  the  way  between 
became  of  little  account,  though  Jerusalem  must  always 
have  a  tremendous  significance  for  reasons  with  which 
we  have  here  no  concern. 

A  related  geographical  condition  was  the  next  to 
influence  the  world's  history — a  condition  dependent  on 
the  distribution  of  land  and  water.  It  is  obvious  that  man 
must  live  on  the  land.  States  must  be  on  the  land,  so 
that  history  concerns  itself  in  the  first  place  and  mainly 
with  the  land.  But  though  no  large  body  of  men  can 
live  permanently  on  the  water,  can  use  energy  profitably 
and  have  a  history  on  the  water,  yet,  on  the  other  hand, 
movement,  as  opposed  to  settlement,  is  much  more 
easily  possible  on  water  than  on  land.     On  land  there 


16        GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

are  barriers  hindering  communication;  these  must  be 
surmounted  or  detours  must  be  made  to  avoid  them  :  in 
neither  case  is  energy  used  with  adequate  return.  Not 
only  so,  but  very  much  less  energy  is  required  to  move 
a  given  amount  of  matter  on  water  than  on  land.  That 
is  to  say,  water  is  more  fitted  than  land  to  form  "  a 
Way  "  by  which  men  and  goods  may  be  taken  from  one 
place  to  another. 

This  fact  was  known  to  both  the  early  empires.  The 
Nile,  Euphrates  and  Tigris  not  only  supplied  water  for 
irrigation  and  man's  more  immediate  personal  wants, 
but  were  found  to  be  ways.  At  first  rafts,  mere  bundles 
of  feeds,  were  used;  then  bladders  were  employed  to 
give  greater  buoyancy ;  later,  light  boats  were  also  made 
use  of,  and  in  the  latter  the  Babylonian  traders  of 
3000  B.C.  may  even  have  ventured  out  into  the  protected 
waters  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  while  Egyptians  certainly 
used  a  few  vessels  in  the  Red  Sea  on  one  occasion  a 
century  or  two  later.  These  were,  however,  exceptional 
and  noted  with  wonder.  It  was  to  the  rivers  that  boats 
were  restricted. 

On  rivers,  though  less  energy  is  used  than  on  land, 
there  is  the  disadvantage  that  men  must  go  where  the 
river  goes.  Rivers,  and  especially  those  with  few  or  no 
tributaries  like  the  Euphrates  or  Nile,  cannot,  even  when 
supplemented  by  canals,  be  of  such  service  as  the  sea, 
for,  when  once  on  the  sea,  it  is  possible  to  go  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  Thus  the  geographical  distribution  of 
land  and  wTater  is  of  enormous  importance,  and  one  of 
the  most  important  features  of  that  distribution  lies 
in  the  fact  that  communication  by  sea  is  easy,  just 
because  the  sea  is  one  and  the  lands  are  many. 

But  to  those  early  peoples,  even  after  thousands  of 


THE  SEA  WAY  47 

years  of  civilization,  the  mystery  of  the  unknown  forbade 
a  greater  knowledge  of  the  sea.  Everyone  was  familiar 
with  the  land,  but  the  fertile  districts  on  which  men 
lived  were  separated  from  the  sea  by  marshes.  Rivers 
flowing  through  the  land  were  familiar,  but  no  one  knew 
the  sea;  to  venture  on  it  was  a  fearful  thing.  When 
men  did  discover  the  sea,  they  made  one  of  the  great 
discoveries  of  the  world;  henceforward  it  became  part 
of  history.  It  was  no  longer  an  impassable  barrier,  but 
a  bond  which  united  all  lands  on  its  borders. 

It  is  significant  that  it  was  the  people  who  lived  where 
the  great  land  Way  came  to  the  sea  who  really  made  the 
first  discovery.  Here  under  the  mountains  is  a  fertile 
though  narrow  belt  of  coast  on  which  is  no  border 
swamp ;  here  the  sea  is  deep.  Thus  the  inhabitants  of 
this  land  are  never  out  of  sight  of  the  sea ;  they  are 
compelled  to  think  of  it,  and  they  can  with  far  less  trouble 
than  elsewhere  launch  their  boats  out  on  to  the  deep. 

It  was  of  extraordinary  importance,  too,  that  the 
particular  sea  that  was  thus  discovered  was  the  Mediter- 
ranean. It  is,  as  many  have  pointed  out,  a  place 
where  seamanship,  not  merely  river  navigation,  may  be 
learned.  As  its  name  implies,  it  is  set  in  the  midst 
of  lands,  and  because  it  is  an  inland  sea  not  only  are 
storms  of  less  effect  than  on  the  open  ocean,  but,  what 
was  of  even  more  importance  for  these  mariners  of  old, 
it  is  a  tideless  sea,  so  that  almost  anywhere,  at  almost 
any  time,  small  vessels,  and  such  they  all  were,  could 
easily  land.  These  advantages  it  had  in  common  with 
the  Persian  Gulf  and  with  the  Red  Sea,  though  its  far 
greater  extent  was  of  importance.  But  there  are  other 
advantages  not  possessed  by  either  of  the  others.  Its 
coasts  on  the  whole  are  far  more  fertile,  nor  is  it  wanting 


48        CJKOCKAIMIV    AND    WORLD   POWER 

in  good  natural  harbours  ;  with  its  many  projecting  points 
and  indentations  of  coastline,  and  islands  rising  through 
the  waters,  land  need  never  be  far  out  of  sight,  and  may 
always  be  a  refuge.     It  is  a  very  nursery  of  seamen. 

When  this  sea  was  discovered  to  be  a  Way,  the  people 
of  the  junction  land,  the  jumping-off  place,  the  Phoeni- 
cians, the  inhabitants  of  the  city  states  of  Tyre  and 
Sidon  and  the  rest,  took  their  place  as  an  important 
factor  in  that  little  world  of  olden  time.  It  is  obviously 
to  be  expected  that  the  form  of  civilization  based 
on  the  sea  should  develop  later  than  those  we  have 
hitherto  spoken  of.  It  is  natural  that  these  states 
should  develop  only  after  the  Way  was  recognized, 
and  thereafter  long  time  must  have  elapsed  before  the 
minds  of  men  were  stimulated  to  action  by  the  ideas 
involved.  By  1600  B.C.,  however,  the  Phoenicians 
were  recognized  as  sea  traders,  so  that  long  before 
this  they  must  have  begun  their  venturesome  career. 
It  is  possible  that  originally  they  came,  along  the  Way, 
from  Babylonia,  where  they  were  familiar  with  boats 
and  trade,  where  clear  skies  tempted  to  a  study  of 
astronomy,  which  was  of  incalculable  service  in  guiding 
their  ships  by  night.  If  this  is  so,  their  fresh  surround- 
ings stimulated  them  to  advance  in  new  directions. 
First  Sidon  and  then  Tyre  took  the  lead  among  the 
cities  scattered  along  the  coast  from  which  ships  went 
out  to  barbarian  lands  ever  more  and  more  remote.  It 
may  have  been  that  they  went  at  first  in  search  of  the 
shellfish  which  were  required  in  always  increasing 
quantity  to  dye  royal  robes  with  Tyrian  purple. 

However  that  may  be,  search  for  the  dye  was  not 
their  only  aim.  Trade  or  commerce  of  any  kind,  so  long 
as  it  repaid  their  trouble,  was  welcome,  and  that  their 


PHCENICIA  49 

trade  might  be  conducted  with  greater  security,  colonies 
were  established  from  end  to  end  of  the  Mediterranean, 
so  that  by  1000  B.C.  the  Phoenician  confederacy,  though 
loosely  knit,  formed  a  whole  which  had  to  be  reckoned 
with.  They  ruled  over  very  little  land,  it  is  true,  for 
they  were  essentially  traders,  and  traders  do  not  require 
large  areas  of  fertile  land  on  which  to  grow  their  food; 
they  can  buy  it  with  the  profits  of  their  business. 
Tyre,  Sidon  and  Carthage  dominated  only  small  districts 
round  them,  and  their  territory  was  not,  as  was  that  of 
Egypt  or  Babylonia,  a  compact  whole ;  it  was  scattered 
over  the  coasts  of  the  Mediterranean,  which  united 
those  isolated  lands  into  a  power  of  a  different  order 
from  any  that  had  been  before. 

Not  only  was  the  rule  of  the  Phoenicians  a  new  thing, 
but  they  individually  possessed  moral  qualities  of  a 
new  kind,  likewise  bred  into  them  by  their  surroundings. 
That  barbarian  markets  continued  open  to  them  so 
long  implies  that  their  behaviour  must  have  com- 
manded respect.  Trade  is  essentially  peaceful ;  so  much 
the  Egyptians  and  Babylonians  had  learned.  But  the 
Phoenicians  learned  more  :  they  learned  to  be  brave, 
and  they  were  no  mere  fighters  like  the  Assyrians. 
Constant  voyaging  over  wild  seas  in  fragile  vessels  not 
only  bred  a  bravery  of  a  high  type,  but  a  love  of  free- 
dom which  enabled  them  again  and  again  to  withstand 
successfully  even  the  might  of  Assyrian  arms. 

Though  Assyria  failed  to  absorb  Phoenician  trade 
she  crippled  the  trade  she  could  not  take,  so  that 
from  the  sixth  century  B.C.  onward  the  Phoenicians  of 
Phoenicia  were  of  less  account.  They  were  not  finally 
destroyed,  however,  till  they  were  brought  face  to  face 
with  a  sea-power  wThose  story  we  have  now  to  consider. 

E 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   SEA  :     I.    GREECE 

We  have  seen  how,  protected  by  deserts  and  marshes, 
ancient  civilizations  arose  in  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia; 
how,  as  a  result  of  the  natural  intercourse  between 
them,  other  states  became  of  importance,  and  how  the 
sea  became  a  bond  as  well  as  a  barrier.  In  so  doing, 
we  have  followed  a  natural  sequence.  We  must  now 
consider  how  in  other  places  besides  Phoenicia  and 
Egypt  the  sea  acted  as  a  control,  at  first  as  a  protection 
and  afterwards  as  a  bond. 

The  people  with  whose  homes  we  are  concerned  are 
those  who  in  later  times  called  themselves  Hellenes,  but 
whom  we  call  Greeks.  The  home  of  these  Hellenes  was 
Hellas,  or,  as  we  would  say,  Greece.  Wherever  Greeks 
were,  there  was  Hellas,  and  it  is  Hellas  with  which  we 
have  to  deal.  A  popular  misconception  must  be  avoided. 
If  we  look  at  a  modern  political  map,  and  then  think  of 
Greece  as  only  the  south-western  extremity  of  the  Balkan 
peninsula,  where  the  mountain  ridges  are  beginning  to 
break  down  to  the  sea,  we  are  correct  in  the  sense  that 
this  is  the  modern  kingdom  of  Greece.  We  are  wrong 
if  we  think  of  this  land  as  the  only  home  even  of  modern 
Greeks,  and  we  are  still  further  wrong  if  we  think  of 
this  as  the  Greece  whose  history  is  now  to  be  considered. 

If  we  look  at  a  map  showing  the  distribution  of  race3 
50 


GREECE  51 

in  the  Nearer  East,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  real  Greece, 
the  real  land  of  the  Greeks,  to  this  day  comprises  all  the 
coasts,  peninsulas  and  islands  of  the  Aegean  Sea;  and 
the  Aegean  Sea  is,  of  all  parts  of  the  Mediterranean,  that 
which  has  more  islands  dotting  its  surface  and  more 
peninsulas  and  promontories  breaking  the  regularity  of 
its  coastline  than  has  any  other.  So  thickly  is  it  sown 
with  islands  that  the  name  given  by  the  Greeks  to  their 
chief  sea  has  come  with  us  to  signify  an  assemblage  of 
islands.  This  but  emphasizes  the  character  which  makes 
the  sea  important,  for  the  most  primitive  culture  of 
which  we  have  any  knowledge  in  Europe  arose  on  these 
islands  and  peninsulas. 

Here  we  have  lands  where,  protected  by  the  geo- 
graphical conditions,  there  was  a  chance  for  men  to 
perfect  a  civilization  free  from  outside  interference.  In 
this  region  two  contrasted  forms  of  civilization  arose. 
Which  was  the  earlier,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 

(i)  On  the  one  hand,  in  the  large  island  of  Crete,  in 
the  Peloponnese,  which  is  almost  an  island,  and  in  one 
or  two  other  favoured  spots,  there  gradually  arose  a 
higher  standard  of  living,  because  in  these  lands,  while 
they  were  almost  entirely  protected  from  invasion,  there 
was  room  for  considerable  expansion.  The  condition  of 
the  people  gradually  improved,  so  that  by  2000  B.C. 
great  stone  buildings  were  erected  and  many  arts  and 
crafts  of  a  simple  kind  were  practised.  The  cities  thus 
built  were  placed  as  far  inland  as  possible,  so  that  there 
might  be  the  less  danger  from  seamen  who  might  attack 
dwellers  by  the  shore,  but  who  would  be  chary  of 
trusting  themselves  far  from  their  element,  the  sea. 

(ii)  On  the  other  hand,  seamen  did  exist  even  in  these 
early    times.     Possibly   they    came    from    the   smaller 


52   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

islands  from  which  the  sea  was  always  in  eight,  so  that 
it  was  hound  to  be  familiar  to  all.  Thus  it  is  probable 
that,  even  earlier  than  the  Phoenicians,  the  inhabitants 
of  these  lands  had  built  boats  and  sailed  from  place  to 
place. 

As  the  culture  which  had  its  seat  in  protected  parts 
gradually  evolved,  it  was  to  be  expected  that  the  horror 
of  the  sea  natural  to  land  men  should  give  place  to  know- 
ledge of  it.  Thus  when  this  culture  reached  its  zenith 
about  the  time  of  the  18th  Dynasty,  1600  B.C.,  it  had 
spread  over  all  the  islands  of  the  Aegean  and  the  coasts 
of  Asia  Minor,  and  had  left  traces  in  what  were  later  to 
be  called  Italy  and  Sicily,  while  the  ships  of  Crete,  at  any 
rate,  were  known  to  the  Egyptians,  and  embassies  were 
received  at  the  court  of  the  Pharaohs.  It  was,  however, 
a  culture  that  spread,  not  an  empire  that  ruled. 

In  early  times  the  sea  was  a  barrier,  so  that  Greece, 
like  Egypt  and  Babylon,  has  geographical  conditions 
which  favour  the  development  of  an  early  civilization  ; 
but  the  differences  must  be  as  carefully  noted  as  the 
resemblances.  As  Babylon  within  its  marshes  was 
different  from  Egypt  surrounded  by  desert,  so  Greece 
protected  by  the  sea  was  different  from  either.  Egypt, 
owing  to  its  length,  was  divided  naturally  into  Upper 
and  Lower — the  kingdoms  of  the  North  and  South  as 
they  were  called — the  Delta  and  the  Valley,  and  these 
again  into  smaller  districts  or  nomes;  but  these  latter 
were  not  separated  from  each  other  by  any  natural 
barriers  of  much  account,  so  that  Egypt  in  history  is 
generally  under  one  ruler,  occasionally  under  two  rulers, 
and  only  in  exceptional  circumstances  under  such 
divided  authority  that  the  nomes  were  independent. 
Babylonia,  again,  notwithstanding  that  it  was  much 


GREECE  53 

more  compact,  was  yet  subject  to  a  far  greater  tendency 
to  division  into  smaller  states  than  was  Egypt,  as  the 
barriers  between  those  minor  states  were  more  important 
and  the  unifying  effect  of  the  river  was  not  so  greatly 
felt.  Eventually,  however,  since  the  barriers  were  not 
complete,  the  states  of  Babylonia  were  compelled  to 
enter  some  sort  of  union.  But  the  islands  and  peninsulas 
of  Greece,  when  the  sea  was  a  barrier,  were  separated 
very  completely  not  only  from  all  else  but  also  from 
each  other,  and  even  when  it  became  a  bond,  distance 
still  intervened ;  the  frontier  was  not  a  line  but  an  area. 

These  conditions  not  only  controlled  history  more  or 
less  directly  by  making  one  course  more  possible  than 
another,  but  also  affected  history  more  at  second  hand, 
though  none  the  less  effectively,  by  reacting  on  the 
minds  of  the  Greeks.  They  looked  on  the  sea  with 
different  eyes  from  the  Phoenicians.  To  the  Phoeni- 
cians the  sea  was  a  means  of  setting  up  trade  routes ; 
to  the  Greeks  it  was  a  means  of  preserving  their  in- 
dependence. To  the  Phoenicians  it  was  primarily  a 
way ;  to  the  Greeks  it  was  primarily  a  defence.  For  this 
reason  mainly,  one  characteristic  of  Greek  civilization  is 
the  intense  feeling  of  independence  felt  by  one  state  not 
only  of  men  alien  in  race,  but  even  of  other  Greek 
states.  And  this  feeling  is  strengthened  by  the  great 
differences  which,  owing  to  the  physical  features  and 
consequent  diversity  of  climate,  exist  between  even 
adjacent  parts  of  the  mainland.  Thus  each  state  felt 
its  own  unity  so  strongly  that  no  Greek  empire  was 
ever  established. 

This  was  no  passing  effect.  About  1000  B.C.  the  form 
of  civilization  which  had  held  the  field  in  what  is 
now  modern  Greece  underwent  a  change.     Tribes  from 


54   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

the  north  invaded  the  land,  and  for  a  time  there 
was  an  apparent  set  back.  This  was  not  permanent, 
for  the  infusion  of  new  blood  helped  to  quicken  the 
distinctively  Greek  form  of  culture,  and  brought  it  to  a 
finer  fruition.  With  this  we  have  at  present  little  to 
do.  What  we  have  to  notice  is  that,  though  there  was 
some  change  in  the  distribution  of  states,  the  action  of 
geographical  controls  was  little  changed,  and  such 
changes  as  did  take  place  were  due  to  the  different  effect 
the  controls  had  on  the  minds  of  men  who  had  uncon- 
sciously learned  more  of  the  methods  by  which  energy 
might  be  saved.  The  newer  Greek  civilization  spread 
over  the  islands  and  peninsulas  of  the  Aegean  in  the  same 
way  as  did  the  earlier,  but  it  spread  faster  because  the 
sea  was  known  better  and  was  found  to  be  something  of 
a  way.  On  the  other  hand,  the  lesson  learned  through 
long  years  that  the  sea  was  a  protection,  and  the  outlook 
on  life  implied  in  the  lesson,  are  just  as  obvious  in  later 
as  in  earlier  history. 

The  internal  history  of  Hellas  exemplifies  the  control 
of  the  geographical  conditions.  New  states  indeed  arose. 
Instead  of  Argolis  and  Thebes  we  hear  of  Sparta  and 
Athens,  but  the  history  is  just  such  as  might  have  been 
expected.  Owing  to  the  diverse  interests  of  the  small 
units  we  see  continual  kaleidoscopic  change  during  the 
three  or  four  centuries  in  which  Greece  is  clearly  before 
our  eyes.  There  was  little  stability  for  each  unit; 
indeed  even  the  members  of  each  unit  were  in  a  like 
case,  and  felt  that  individual  claims  ought  to  be  con- 
sidered. Through  it  all  the  fundamental  importance 
of  the  sea  stands  out  clearly;  the  internal  history  of 
these  Grecian  states — of  Greece  in  the  wider  sense — 
consists    in    a   struggle    for   supremacy    between    con- 


GREECE  55 

federations  of  those  city  states  based  as  much  as 
possible  on  the  land  and  confederations  based  as  much 
as  possible  on  the  sea.  Naturally,  as  we  see  it  now,  the 
victory  rested  for  the  longest  time  with  the  confederacy 
based  on  the  sea,  though,  owing  to  the  usual  tendency 
towards  separation,  this  time  was  itself  but  short. 

The  external  history  is  equally  instructive.  We  have 
seen  that  to  the  Greeks  the  sea  was  a  defence,  while  to 
the  Phoenicians  it  was  a  way.  To  them,  the  Phoenicians, 
it  was  little  of  a  protection,  for  their  danger  came  not 
from  the  sea  but  from  the  land.  In  their  new  enthusiasm, 
with  no  rivals,  or  at  most  only  individual  pirate  ships, 
to  dispute  their  claims,  they  at  first  went  far  afield  and 
were  much  scattered.  Phoenicia,  if  the  term  be  taken 
to  include  all  the  lands  under  the  influence  of  the 
Phoenicians,  was  much  less  compact  than  was  Greece,  be- 
cause there  was  as  yet  no  sea-power  or  idea  of  it.  It  had 
not  entered  into  the  minds  of  the  Phoenicians  that  com- 
merce required  to  be  protected,  defended,  just  as  much 
as  agriculture ;  that  merchant  ships  moving  on  the  sea 
required  organized  defence  as  much  as  cities  and  states 
fixed  on  the  land.  It  was  natural  that,  having  no  rivals, 
they  should  think  so.  Yet,  though  defence  is  necessary 
for  commerce,  there  is  no  natural  defence  on  the  sea ; 
wherever  the  sea  is,  there  is  a  way  open  to  all  and  debarred 
to  none.  The  only  defence  lies  in  the  seamen  themselves, 
and,  other  things  being  equal,  the  more  seamen  there  are 
in  one  place,  the  better  is  the  defence.  Viewing  the  sea 
as  a  battlefield,  the  Greeks,  on  the  other  hand,  were  little 
disposed  to  allow  others  to  share  with  them  in  the  advan- 
tages of  the  sea,  and  were  the  more  able  to  enforce  their 
will.  Hence  it  is  little  wonder  that  when  at  last  the 
Greeks  did  become  traders,  they  should  be  somewhat 


56        GEOGRAPHY   AND    WORLD  POWER 

re  cautious  in  extending  their  operations  to  districts 

m  which  they  would  be  at  a  disadvantage,  and  they 
were  able  by  force  to  oust  the  Phoenicians  from  trade 
with  many  lands  to  which  they  had  comparatively 
easy  access.  The  Phoenicians  never  cared  for  fighting 
for  its  own  sake,  and  when  they  felt  the  pressure  of 
competition,  knowing  there  was  room  for  all,  they  just 
went  somewhere  else.  Thus  on  becoming  merchants, 
stimulated  by  the  example  of  the  Phoenicians  or  as  a 
natural  result  of  the  geographical  conditions,  or  more 
probably  in  consequence  of  both  controls,  the  Greeks 
eventually  drove  their  rivals  from  the  eastern  .Mediter- 
ranean and  made  it  their  own. 

It  was  not,  however,  only  with  the  Phoenicians  that 
the  Greeks  were  brought  into  conflict.  We  have  seen 
that  after  Nineveh  fell,  the  Medes  held  sway  over  much 
of  the  empire  of  Assyria.  To  the  Medes  shortly  suc- 
ceeded another  race  from  the  mountainous  border  of  the 
Iranian  plateau.  The  Persians  ruled  over  all  the  empire 
of  Assyria,  and  extended  her  frontiers  in  almost  all 
directions,  with  the  result  that  for  the  first  time  in  history 
a  land  empire  was  brought  to  face  a  sea-power.  Greece 
included  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor.  These  coasts  Persia 
now  approached  from  the  plateau  in  the  rear  after  the 
conquest  of  the  kingdom  of  Croesus,  which  had  never 
been  tributary  to  Assyria.  Probably  the  Persian  rulers 
thought  that  the  inhabitants  of  these  coast-lands  would 
at  once  submit,  as  the  Phoenicians  had  done.  The  latter, 
with  little  idea  of  the  protecting  power  of  the  sea,  bent 
to  the  storm,  paid  tribute,  and  carried  on  their  trading 
as  before.  To  them  it  was  a  natural  thing  to  do ;  it 
paid  them  to  do  it.  But  the  Greeks  looked  at  things 
in  a  different  way  :    again  the  important  fact  is  the 


GREECE  57 

mental  attitude  induced  by  the  geographical  conditions. 
Even  to  the  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  independence  was 
more  than  trade,  and  the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor  were 
only  part  of  Greece.  They  looked  to  the  sea,  not  to  the 
land;  they  looked  away  from  Persia,  not  towards  her. 
The  Phoenicians  of  the  Phoenician  coast  could  receive  no 
help  from  such  colonies  as  they  planted ;  the  Greeks  of 
Asia  Minor  could  continually  receive  assistance  from 
their  brethren  over  the  water.  The  Greeks  on  the 
mainland  might  be  conquered,  for  a  time,  by  an  army, 
but  there  still  remained  the  Greeks  across  the  sea  and 
on  the  islands  which  formed  a  base  inaccessible  to  a  land- 
power  without  a  fleet.  A  sea-people  can  be  crushed  only 
by  a  sea-power.  Persia,  then,  finally  used  the  ships  of 
her  dependents,  especially  the  Phoenicians,  but  also  the 
Cilicians  and  even  the  Egyptians,  and  attempted  to 
conquer  the  Greeks  across  the  sea.  Xerxes  marched  his 
army — probably  the  greatest  the  world  had  seen  or 
was  for  many  centuries  to  see — overland,  and  the 
very  fear  of  it  caused  many  Greeks  to  submit  without 
a  blow,  but  at  Salamis,  in  the  first  of  the  long  series  of 
great  sea-fights  which  the  world  has  seen,  the  little  sea- 
state  of  Athens,  pushed  to  desperation,  overthrew  the 
fleet  of  Xerxes,  and  destroyed  any  effective  control  of 
the  sea  by  the  great  empire  of  the  east.  Now  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  it  was  the  mental  attitude  of  the  Persian 
king,  it  was  the  want  of  familiarity  with  the  sea,  which 
was  the  crucial  point,  not  want  of  ships.  At  the  con- 
clusion of  the  battle  Xerxes  had  more  ships  fit  for 
action  than  had  the  Greeks,  but  because  Xerxes  came 
from  a  land  in  which  the  sea  was  looked  on  as  a  strange 
thing,  because  he  was  not  a  seaman,  he  mistrusted  the 
sea  and  retired  defeated.     If  his  fleet  had  been  quite 


58       GEOGRAPHY  AND    WORLD   POWER 

destroyed,  retreat  mighl  have  meant  no  more  than  that 
the  accidents  of  war  were  against  him,  and  that  he  would 
come  again,  but  retreat  while  his  fleet  was  numerically 
superior  implied  an  acknowledgment  that  the  sea  was 
beyond  the  rule  of  Persia. 

This  was  in  480  B.C.  Into  less  than  the  next  century 
and  a  half  is  compressed  the  Golden  Age  of  Greece,  when 
those  men  lived  who  have  made  Greek  culture  memorable. 
During  all  the  time  the  influence  of  the  sea,  direct  or 
indirect,  is  always  prominent.  It  is  significant  that 
one  of  the  best-known  stories  in  all  history  should  be 
of  that  shout  of  the  "  Ten  Thousand"  when,  after  months 
of  wandering,  their  eyes  beheld  the  waters  of  the  Euxine. 
That  cry  of  "  The  sea,  the  sea,"  rivets  attention  on  the 
controlling  influence  in  the  history  of  Greece,  and  is  all 
the  more  striking  as  coming  from  an  army  made  up  for 
the  most  part  of  Spartans,  who  valued  the  sea  somewhat 
less  than  did  their  brethren. 

As  it  was  natural  that  Athens,  the  state  which  was  most 
dependent  on  the  sea,  should  have  been  instrumental 
in  bringing  to  naught  the  arms  of  Xerxes,  so  it  was  in- 
evitable that  Athens  should  then  take  the  lead  in  Greece, 
and  hold  it  for  a  longer  time  than  did  any  other  state. 
But  this  time  was  itself  short — some  sixty  years.  Em- 
barking on  a  career  of  conquest  oversea,  one  fleet  was 
destroyed  in  Sicily  by  other  seamen,  and  her  prestige 
was  in  a  moment  gone.  When  a  second  fleet,  endeavour- 
ing to  protect  the  corn  supply  coming  from  the  Black 
Sea,  was  also  destroyed  in  the  Dardanelles,  her  recupera- 
tive power  was  not  strong  enough  to  bear  the  strain; 
she  was  starved  into  submission,  and  became  again 
negligible. 

To  Athens  succeeded  Sparta,  but  for  little  more  than 


GREECE  59 

a  generation,  and,  to  Sparta,  Thebes  for  some  ten  years, 
ere  again  the  forces  of  disruption  were  too  strong.  Thebes 
never  had  control  of  the  sea,  and  Sparta  held  it  for  only 
a  few  years  after  Athens  fell.  It  was  then  partly  regained 
by  the  Athenians,  partly  held  by  the  Greek  city  states 
of  Asia  Minor,  and  partly  by  the  Phoenicians.  The 
latter,  as  we  have  seen,  had  been  compelled  by  their 
situation  to  throw  in  their  lot  with  Persia.  The  Greek 
city  states  of  the  mainland  of  Asia  Minor,  though  some- 
times not  in  vain  they  looked  to  Greece  for  aid,  were  still 
almost  in  a  like  ill  case.  By  the  help  of  these,  when 
Greece  was  disunited,  the  Persian  king  was  able,  on  two 
occasions,  at  least  to  claim,  though  he  could  scarcely  be 
said  to  exercise,  some  kind  of  control  over  the  whole  of 
Greece. 

Two  conditions  were,  indeed,  necessary  in  order  that 
the  whole  of  Greece  should  be  united :  effective  control 
of  the  sea  and  effective  control  of  the  land.  Greece 
consisted  of  islands  and  peninsulas.  The  former  can 
obviously  be  united  only  by  control  of  the  sea ;  the  latter 
must  always  be  vulnerable  from  the  land.  When  an 
organized  land-power  arose,  the  disunited  states  of  what 
is  modern  Greece  were  one  and  all  compelled  for  a  time 
to  acknowledge  one  single  overlordship ;  and  when  to 
power  on  land  was  added  power  on  sea,  there  arose  a 
state  strong  enough  not  only  to  subdue  to  itself  the  whole 
of  Greece,  but  to  unite  for  a  short  time  all  the  world 
that  then  mattered.  The  Macedonian  conquests  under 
Philip  and  Alexander  show  the  controlling  effect  of  in- 
dividual men  on  the  course  of  history.  Nevertheless, 
the  geographical  controls,  if  not  so  obvious  as  in  other 
cases,  are  yet  as  effective  in  this  case  as  in  others,  and 
are  perhaps  more  obvious  if  it  is  remembered  that  the 


60        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

geographical  controls  produce  their  effects  by  acting  on 
the  minds  of  men. 

The  little  world  known  to  men — to  civilized  men- 
consisted  now  of  Egypt,  Mesopotamia,  Greece  and  the 
lands  between.  Beyond  this  circle  there  lay  lands  and 
seas  known  in  some  vague  way  to  those  within  the  margin 
of  mountain  and  desert.  The  mountain  men,  the  Medes 
and  Persians  on  the  east,  had  descended  on  Mesopotamia, 
and  sweeping  westward  had  found  a  limit  to  their  con- 
quests in  the  seas  and  highlands  of  Greece.  In  so  doing 
they  had  forced  on  the  attention  of  the  Greeks,  and 
especially  of  the  European  Greeks,  the  existence  of  a 
great  civilized  power  to  the  east.  The  Greeks  thus 
tended  to  look  eastward,  and  gradually  came  to  realize 
that  more  easily  than  Xerxes  had  come  west  could  they 
go  east.  Individually  better  men  than  the  Asiatics, 
because  of  their  Grecian  birth  and  training,  the  "  Ten 
Thousand "  had  shown  an  invasion  to  be  possible. 
Agesilaus  of  Sparta  had  begun  an  invasion,  and  Jason  of 
Thessaly  had  dreamed  of  the  conquest  of  Persia  by  a 
united  Greece.  But  both  Agesilaus  and  Jason  were 
thwarted  in  their  aims,  though  only  because  Greece  was 
so  disunited.  Thus  the  idea  of  the  conquest  of  the  East 
by  Hellenic  forces  was  no  new  thing ;  it  was  the  natural 
result  of  the  geographical  conditions. 

The  possibility  of  its  accomplishment  was  equally  the 
result  of  geographical  conditions.  Macedonia  is  not 
quite  Greece.  It  is  more  remote  from  the  sea  than 
any  of  the  states  of  Greece ;  it  has  the  largest  rivers 
and  the  largest  valleys  of  all  Greece.  Thus  the  Mace- 
donians were  not  seamen  as  were  the  Greeks;  they 
were  landmen  and  mountaineers  for  the  most  part. 
They  were  civilized  to  a  considerable  extent  by  their 


GREECE 


61 


nearness  to  the  Greeks,  yet  because  of  their  remote- 
ness from  the  sea  they  retained  more  of  their  primitive 
habits,  especially  obedience  to  the  authority  of  their 
chiefs.  This  made  them  excellent  soldiers,  in  particular 
when  fighting  became  more  of  a  science,  when  energy  was 
economized  in  fighting  and  the  army  became  more  of  a 


".:..'      '  ■ ~~~ — ' 


l§pver600f$ 


MACEDONIA. 

machine,  when  some  thousands  of  men  were  drilled  to 
act  as  one.  Somewhat  remote  from  attack  themselves, 
it  was  natural  that  when  the  time  came,  they  should 
be  successful,  where  men  of  other  states  had  failed,  in 
imposing  their  authority  on  all  Greece. 

Nor  was  Macedonia,  like  Persia,  without  all  knowledge 
of  the  sea ;   expansion  beyond  the  river  valleys  brought 


62        GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

her  at  once  into  touch  with  the  far-projecting  penin- 
sulas of  Chalcidi.ee,  with  its  many  merchant  cities  de- 
pendent on  the  sea.  Further  expansion  brought  her  at 
once  to  a  position  by  which  she  was  able  to  control  the 
Hellespont. 

She  was  thus  in  a  very  different  position  from  either 
Persia  or  Sparta,  the  other  powers  essentially  based  on 
the  land,  who  had  attempted  to  control  Greece.  The 
former  from  afar  attempted  to  control  the  sea  cities 
of  Asia  Minor;  the  latter  for  a  short  time,  across  the 
water  of  which  she  was  not  really  mistress,  had  held  the 
Hellespont.  The  position  of  Macedonia,  as  a  land  power 
holding  the  sea,  was  stronger  than  that  of  either ;  there 
are  no  islands  round  Chalcidice  to  form  a  base  for  an 
opposing  sea-power,  and  the  whole  coast  is  within  easy 
reach. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  with  something  new  in  life 
learned  from  the  geographical  conditions,  the  race  of 
men  inhabiting  this  mountain  land  should  not  pass  away 
without  having  exerted  some  influence  on  their  world ; 
it  is  conceivable  that  one  of  the  other  Greek  states  might 
have  produced  men  who  could  do  what  Philip  and 
Alexander  accomplished,  but  if  forces  which  had  their 
origin  in  Greece  were  ever  to  overrun  the  world,  it  is 
most  natural  that  they  should  come  from  Macedonia. 
Here,  on  the  one  hand,  with  a  continent  behind  it,  the 
idea  of  a  land  empire  would  have  much  more  effect,  and 
it  would  be  much  more  evident  that  conquest  of  land 
must  be  by  an  army ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  there  would 
not  be  the  fear  of  the  sea  natural  to  landmen,  but  it 
would  be  recognized,  by  acute  minds  at  any  rate,  that 
the  control  of  the  sea  was  necessary  as  a  preliminary 
condition. 


GREECE  63 

Philip,  taking  advantage  of  the  jealousy  of  the  Greeks, 
bound  all  the  separate  units  of  Greece  to  Macedonia. 
Alexander  the  Great  by  means  of  fleet  and  army,  a 
combination  now  used  on  a  large  scale  successfully  for 
the  first  time,  conquered  nearly  all  the  lands  that  had  a 
claim  to  be  called  civilized,  and  let  in  the  flood  of  Greek 
civilization  on  the  whole  of  Asia  Minor,  Egypt,  Meso- 
potamia, the  Persian  Plateau,  Turan,  and  even  for  a 
moment  stirred  the  peoples  of  India,  who,  largely  shut 
ofT  from  all  else,  had  slowly  been  perfecting  a  civilization 
of  their  own. 

The  Greek  ideal  was,  however,  not  empire  but  politics. 
The  empire  had  been  set  up  by  two  men,  while  the 
capabilities  of  the  Greeks  for  government  were  un- 
changed. It  is  little  wonder,  then,  that  after  Alex- 
ander's death  all  his  empire  should  have  tumbled  to 
pieces,  that  the  natural  geographical  units — Egypt, 
Mesopotamia,  Persia,  Asia  Minor,  Greece  and  Thrace — 
should  have  fallen  into  different  hands ;  that,  in  the 
turmoils  that  followed,  these  lands  should  gradually 
have  drawn  apart,  though  for  the  most  part  ruled  by 
Greek  or  Macedonian  dynasties ;  that  Greece  itself  should 
still  have  been  disturbed  by  internal  dissensions,  and 
that  in  no  long  time  it  should  have  been  absorbed  into 
the  new  empire  of  the  west. 

But  the  sea  still  continued  to  control  Grecian  history. 
The  whole  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  was  per- 
meated by  Greek  civilization.  Greek  cities  arose  in 
foreign  lands.  For  the  first  time  the  capital  of  Egypt 
was  placed  by  the  sea.  The  ancient  capitals  of  Thebes 
and  Memphis  were  inland ;  when  the  Greeks  ruled,  they 
had  to  place  their  capital,  Alexandria,  where  they  could 
gain  fresh  strength  from  their  base  of  operations  in 


64   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 


Hellas  over  ihe  water.  Antioch,  too,  owed  its  growth 
and  importance  to  its  position  in  the  gate  between  the 
highlands  on  the  north  and  south,  where,  by  way  of  the 
Euphrates,  access  might  be  had  to  Babylonia;    and  it 


^     L.MareOtis 
mostly  Marsh 

(iii) 


THE   VOS1TION    OF   ALEXANDRIA 


Alexandria  is — 

(i)  at  the  Western  entrance  to  the  Nile  Valley,  to  avoid  the  silt 

which  the  river  brings  down  and  which  is  carried  eastward 

by  the  current  of  the  sea. 
(ii)  between  the  marsh  and  the  desert  on   the  first  piece  of  solid 

ground  where  there  was  a  natural  harbour, 
(iii)  on  an  island  (since  joined  to  the  mainland)  with  a  marshy 

lake  behind  and  hence  suited  for  defence. 

was  related  not  only  to  the  sea-approach  but  to  the 
land-approach,  where  the  traveller  coming  by  the  land 
way  from  Byzantium,  skirting  the  drier  region  in  the 


GREECE 


65 


centre  of  Asia  Minor,  has  to  make  his  choice  between 
B:\bylonia  or  Egypt. 

Though  in  the  lands  of  Syria  and  Egypt  the  Greeks 
remained  only  as  merchants  and  rulers,  a  caste  apart, 


THE   POSITION   OF  ANTIOCH. 

yet  they  gave  an  idea  of  social  unity  to  the  whole  area 
which  had  been  the  world,  and  when  again  after  centuries 
the  Roman  Empire  in  its  turn  broke  up,  the  Greek  city 
of  Byzantium,  controlling  the  coasts  of  the  Aegean  and 
the  Black  Sea,  remained  the  seat  of  a  great  eastern 
empire,  and  these  coasts  were  the  last  remnants  of  that 

F 


66      (jkoci: aim iv  and  world  power 

Eastern  empire  to  be  submerged  by  the  flood  of  Turkish 
races. 

Ami  the  contrasts  remain  still ;  the  Greeks  still  remain 
in  the  coasts  and  islands  of  t he  Aegean;  modem  Greece 
was  one  of  the  first  nations  to  appear  independent  of 
Turkish  rule,  and  that  independence  was  won  for  her 
by  a  sea-fight  on  her  western  shores  at  Navarino.  Once 
again  Salonica  and  Chalcidice  are  under  Greek  rule,  but 
the  coasts  of  Asia  Minor  inhabited  by  Greeks  are  held 
by  a  power  based  on  the  land. 


II.    CARTHAGE 

We  have  seen  how,  protected  in  various  ways,  early 
civilizations  had  peace  to  develop.  The  geographic 
conditions  both  gave  the  protection  and  controlled  the 
direction  which  the  energies  of  the  people  should  take, 
on  the  one  hand  by  determining  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance, and  on  the  other  by  reacting  on  the  mind  and  causing 
it  to  choose  courses  of  action  which  in  the  long  run  might 
be  the  easier,  but  which  at  first  might  be  more  difficult. 
Now  we  must  remember  two  things  in  order  to  under- 
stand the  further  progress  of  history  and  the  way  in 
which  geographical  controls  have  acted. 
'  (i)  The  peoples  inhabiting  the  regions  already  re- 
ferred to  were  subject  to  these  controls  for  many 
ages,  and  under  the  influence  of  these  controls  the 
characters  of  the  people,  their  tastes,  habits  and  ways  of 
living  became  fixed,  so  that  even  when  in  course  of  time 
some  of  the  stock  were  forced  or  induced  to  move  to 
other  lands,  the  characteristics  acquired  through  many 
generations    were    transmitted    to    their    descendants. 


CARTHAGE  67 

How  this  "  transmission  "  takes  place  does  not  matter ; 
in  some  cases  there  may  be  some  direct  physical  inherit- 
ance, in  others  the  transmission  takes  place  by  some 
form  of  teaching,  direct  or  indirect. 

Henceforward  history  is  not  so  simple  as  it  was  in 
earlier  stages.  The  lessons  learned  by  men  under  one 
set  of  conditions  have  to  be  modified  to  suit  a  new  set 
of  conditions.  The  new  geographical  conditions  act  as 
controls,  but  their  action  may  be  somewhat  modified 
by  the  continued  action  of  the  old  geographical  con- 
ditions on  the  minds  of  men.  The  momentum  of  the 
machine,  of  which  we  spoke  in  the  first  chapter,  is  of 
importance. 

(ii)  Also,  though  some  peoples  were  so  favoured  that 
they  learned  more  quickly  how  to  make  the  most  of 
the  energy  that  came  to  them,  though  they  stand  out 
so  prominently  because  they  show  how  energy  may 
be  saved,  yet  other  men  and  races,  perhaps  stimulated 
by  the  more  civilized,  were  advancing  in  knowledge  of 
how  to  make  the  most  of  life.  The  average  civilization 
of  the  world  was  gradually  rising,  but  those  folk  who 
merely  copy  without  originating  must  always  be  of  less 
account  than  those  who  originate  the  advance.  By  the 
period  we  are  now  considering,  many  peoples  were  more 
highly  civilized  than  were  the  ancient  Egyptians  of  whom 
we  learn  first,  but  others  had  progressed  much  further 
still,  and  it  is  always  the  races  which  are  in  the  forefront 
of  the  advance  that  tend  to  dominate  the  rest;  hence 
the  history  of  the  world  is  largely  determined  by  the 
more  advanced  peoples,  the  form  which  the  advance 
takes  being  controlled  by  the  geographical  conditions. 

Remembering  these  facts  we  shall  see  that  the  next 
stage  is  an  advance,  that  it  is  a  natural  advance,  and 


68 


GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 


t hiit  geographical  conditions  control  that  advance  both 
directly  and  indirectly. 

The  Phoenicians  were  induced  to  become  traders  by 
sea  because  of  their  position  ;  because  they  were  traders 
by  sea  they  found  it  convenient  to  establish  more  or 
less  permanent  stations  on  coasts  to  which  and  from 
which  tiiey  took  their  wares.  All  the  coasts  of  the 
Mediterranean  were  thus  dotted  with  their  trading 
posts.     The  Greeks,  as  we  have  seen,  gradually  ousted 


Jan 


April 


Oct 


:^r-j 


under >  inch 
1-2  „ 

2    4   ., 

over'4   .. 


THE   ISLAND   OF  THE   ARABS. 
RAINFALL 


their  rivals  from  whatever  posts  they  held  in  the  Aegean, 
and  Alexander,  in  securing  the  sea  by  taking  to  himself 
all  the  coasts  of  the  Levant  as  far  round  as  Alexandria, 
was  only  giving  the  last  blow  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
great  Phoenician  trading  communities  of  the  eastern 
Mediterranean. 

Trading  communities  composed  of  peoples  of  Phoeni- 
cian stock  did,  however,  continue  to  exist  in  the  western 
Mediterranean.  These  had  been  planted  by  the  Phoeni- 
cians of  Phoenicia  beyond  the  range  of  Greek  influence, 


CARTHAGE 


69 


and  were  again  and  again  reinforced  by  bands  of  emi- 
grants from  Levantine  shores  when  the  rule  of  the  land 
powers  behind  became  too  oppressive.  Such  settlements 
were  for  long  mere  commercial  factories  like  those  planted 
by  the  British  in  India.  Of  these  the  most  important 
was  the  group  of  cities  in  what  is  now  Tunis.  Looking 
at  our  maps  of  Africa  we  shall  see  that  in  the  north- 
west, between  the  desert  and  the  sea,  there  is  a  belt  of 
land  exposed  during  a  part  of  the  year  to  the  westerly 


THE   ISLAND    OF   THE   ARABS  :     RELIEF. 

winds,  which  bring  rain;  it  is  mainly  highland  and 
largely  plateau.  This  is  really  an  "  island  "  in  which  a 
civilization  of  a  kind  might  have  a  chance  of  evolving, 
but  it  is  too  large  to  be  ruled  by  a  power  that  has  not 
reached  a  considerable  degree  of  organization,1  while  it 
is  too  homogeneous  to  be  divided  into  small  pieces. 
The  eastern  and  western  ends  are,  however,  somewhat 
distinct  from  the  middle,  as  they  contain  plains  or  valleys 
of  some  extent.  In  the  eastern  or  Tunis  end — the  end 
nearest    their   old    home  —  the    Phoenicians    naturally 


1  Note  what  this  has  to  do  with  the  saving  of  energy. 


70   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

planted  their  colonies.  The  inhabitants  of  these  colonies 
were  friendly  to  the  natives,  and  did  not  look  on  them- 
selves  as  owners  of  the  soil.  They  were  traderr  and 
sea-traders;  they  looked  on  the  possession  of  land  as 
unnecessary,  not  because  of  anything  in  their  present 
surroundings,  but  because  of  the  influence  of  other 
geographical  conditions  to  which  they  were  no  longer 
exposed.  They  had  been  stimulated  to  act  as  they 
did  by  the  existence  of  the  "  Way,"  but  in  the  western 
Mediterranean  there  was  no  corresponding  land  way. 


THE    "  ISLAND  "    OF   THE    ARABS    BETWEEN    THE   SEA 
AND   THE    DESERT. 

The  existing  geographical  conditions  also  had  their 
effect.  In  their  old  home  they  were  between  the  two 
empires  which  had  their  seats  by  the  Nile  and  the 
Tigris-Euphrates.  They  had  been  accustomed  to  the 
idea  of  others  ruling  the  land,  while  they  traded  by  land 
and  sea.  In  their  new  surroundings  they  were  the 
superior  people.  There  were  no  overlords  on  whom 
they  could  look  even  as  equals.  The  natives  on  whose 
land  they  had  settled,  and  with  whom  they  traded, 
exercised  no  rule  over  men.  These  geographical  con- 
ditions reacted  on  the  history.  Not  only  did  one  city 
take  the  lead,  as  Tyre  and  Sidon  had  done  in  Phoenicia, 


CARTHAGE 


71 


but  Carthage  did  more,  she  actually  set  up  an  empire 
and  subdued  these  other  cities  to  herself,  and  extended 
a  dirqpt  rule  over  what  is  almost  exactly  the  modern 
Tunis. 

Across  the  seas  the  result  was  the  same.  In  the 
eastern  Mediterranean  the  Phoenicians  had  given  way 
with  scarcely  a  struggle  to  the  Greeks.  In  the  west 
Carthage  refused  to  withdraw  from  trade  when  the 
Greeks  endeavoured  to  extend  their  colonies  westward. 
Secure  on  land,  or  on  as  much  land  as  they  wished,  the 


PHOENICIAN  AND   CARTHAGINIAN   LANDS. 

Carthaginians  set  up  a  sea  empire  based  on  trade,  over 
all  the  western  Mediterranean.  The  north  coasts  of 
Africa,  western  Sicily,  Sardinia,  Corsica  and  southern 
Spain  were  all  under  Carthaginian  rule,  and  into  the 
seas  between  no  foreign  merchantman  dared  venture. 

The  character  of  the  rule,  too,  was  due  to  geographical 
controls.  Because  of  the  unbroken  coast  and  the  lack 
of  small  islands,  there  was  in  the  western  Mediterranean 
a  want  of  that  spirit  of  individual  independence  which 
was  at  once  the  strength  and  weakness  of  the  Hellenic 
civilization,  so  that  once  the  rule  was  set  up  the  empire 
of  Carthage  was  by  so  much  the  more  stable.     Carthage 


72        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   TOWER 

had  the  advantage,  too,  of  its  insular  position,  in  that 
there  was  less  danger  of  attack  from  the  land,  and,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  attacks  were  made  on  Carthage  only 
from  overseas. 

But  the  position  had  its  weakness  also.  Largely 
owing  to  geographical  conditions  the  people  over  whom 
the  Carthaginians  ruled  had  not  reached  such  an  ad- 
vanced stage  of  civilization.  They  wore  thus  looked  on 
as  inferior,  and  were  ruled  as  Assyria  had  ruled  her  con- 
quests, with  a  high  hand.  As  the  Carthaginian  Empire 
grew,  the  friendly  feeling  between  natives  and  traders 
gave  place  to  dislike  and  hatred  of  conquerors.  When 
the  time  came  for  Carthage  to  meet  another  empire 
which  had  learned  another  lesson  of  government,  of 
how  to  use  men's  energies  to  better  advantage,  Carthage 
fell,  because,  though  other  conditions  were  nearly  equal, 
though  fleets  and  armies  were  intelligently  used  by 
each,  the  Carthaginians  were  still  at  a  disadvantage. 
Their  armies  were  composed  of  men  who  were  not  in 
sympathy  with  their  masters,  and  who  supported  the 
Carthaginian  power  only  so  long  as  they  were  paid. 
The  money  to  do  this  was  obtained  as  the  profits  of 
trading  :  it  represented  energy  saved  by  the  Carthagin- 
ians ;  but  when  the  profits  of  their  trading  disappeared, 
when  they  lost  the  command  of  the  sea,  they  were 
deserted  b)'  their  mercenary  soldiers,  and  they  had  no 
patriotism  to  fall  back  on.  When  Carthage  lost  her 
sea-power  and  fell,  she  fell  utterly,  and  the  Phoenicians 
disappeared  from  the  scene. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CONTRAST   BETWEEN    SEA    AND  LAND  ',    HIGHLAND 
AND   LOWLAND  I    ROME 

The  next  stage  in  the  history  of  the  world  is  one  which 
is  far  more  complex  in  its  causes  than  any  we  have  yet 
considered.  It  is  not  a  single  group  of  geographical 
conditions  which  we  must  now  notice,  but  a  series  of 
groups,  each  of  which  in  succession  had  more  effect  than 
the  others.  In  addition,  the  cumulative  effect  of  all  the 
history  that  had  gone  before  must  always  be  remem- 
bered. The  lessons  might  not  be  consciously  known  by 
those  we  call  the  Romans,  but  they  were  acted  on,  and 
the  great  discoveries  of  the  peoples  who  had  previously 
made  history  were  so  combined  in  the  Roman  Empire, 
that,  perhaps  more  than  any  other,  Rome  has  influenced 
the  later  course  of  history.  Without  those  previous  em- 
pires, however,  Rome  could  scarcely  have  been  what 
she  became.  Thus  we  have  geographical  controls  act- 
ing at  second  hand,  for  the  original  existence  of  these 
empires  was  largely  due  to  geographical  conditions. 

The  possibility  of  combining  the  lessons  taught  by 
these  empires  was  equally  due  to  geographical  controls. 
So  far  we  have  seen  three  empires — Egypt,  Chaldea, 
Assyria — entirely  based  on  land.  Two  of  them  were 
protected  by  the  natural  conditions,  and  the  latest  of 
them  learned  to  protect  itself.     Then  we  saw  a  succession 

73 


74   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

of  three  peoples  powerful  on  sea  —  the  Phoenicians, 
Greeks  mid  ( larthaginians — who  respectively  did  without 
protection,  were  protected,  and  protected  themselves. 
For  a  brief  moment  a  man  arose  who  understood  the 


MODERN   GREECE  :    RELIEF. 
The  map  shows  the  central  spine  and  the  branching  ridges. 

value  of  both  land  and  sea,  and  by  virtue  of  his  insight, 
and  the  genius  which  gave  him  this  insight,  he  con- 
quered "  the  world."  It  is  not  wonderful,  then,  that 
the  next  development  should  take  place  in  a  land  which 


ROME  75 

projected  far  into  the  sea,  and  in  a  land,  too,  which 
was  exposed  to  the  action  of  forces  which  had  made 
history. 

It  is  natural,  from  the  very  shape  and  position  of 
Italy,  in  touch  with,  but  separated  from,  the  older 
civilizations,  that  here  should  arise  a  new  great  centre; 
but  a  consideration  of  the  details  of  its  structure  wiil 
show  more  plainly  how  natural  it  was.  If  we  compare 
Italy  with  Greece  the  difference  is  apparent.  In  Greece 
there  is  a  whole  network  of  mountain  ranges  rising 
to  a  central  spine  and  descending  steeply  to  the  sea, 
breaking  up  the  land  into  many  small  peninsulas,  islands 
and  coast-plains  at  the  heads  of  bays.  In  Italy  there  is 
one  great  highland  curving  round  concavely  to  the  south- 
west and  rising  to  the  east.  The  outer  rim  faces  a 
shallow  sea  shoaling  to  the  north-west  and  filled  with 
the  rock  waste  from  the  mountains,  so  that  the  level  is 
raised  to  form  a  plain,  the  plain  of  Lombardy.  Except 
where  this  highland  breaks  down  to  the  sea  on  the  south, 
there  are  few  peninsulas  and  islands,  and,  though  there 
are  hills  within  the  curve,  there  is  no  barrier  either  greatly 
hindering  communication  or  serving  as  a  defence.  On 
the  south  there  are,  moreover,  many  harbours ;  on  the 
north  there  are  few.  Thus  there  is  every  reason  why  men 
from  overseas  should  find  a  foothold  on  the  south,  and  why 
men  from  the  continental  land  mass  should  come  south- 
ward, and  it  is  to  be  expected  that  at  some  point  in  the 
region  where  they  met  there  should  arise  a  civilization 
stimulated  by  both.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  is  precisely 
what  has  happened.  In  the  north  of  Italy  the  descen- 
dants of  peoples  who  were  there  before  history  began 
are  even  now  on  the  coast,  squeezed  into  that  position 
by  the  advance  of  peoples  from  the  land ;   while  on  the 


76        GEOGRAHIY   AND   WOULD   TOWER 


south  the  conditions  are  reversed,  the  older  populations 
are  inland. 

Nor  is  it  an  accident  that  these  forces  should  meet 
in  Home,  and  that  Rome,  rather  than  one  of  the  other 
small  towns  or  states,  should  be  the  focus  of  the  new 
civilization.  A  look  at  a  map  will  show  that  what  are 
called  the  Etruscan  Apennines  are  much  lower  than 
either  the  Ligurian  Apennines  to  the  north-west  or  the 


APPROACHES   TO   ITALY.  CRANIAL  TYPES. 

The  northern  approach  is  from  the  land,  the  southern  from  the  sea. 

It  is  evident  (i)  that  the  southern  peoples  are  on  the  whole  long 
heads  and  the  northern  peoples  broad  heads ;  (ii)  the  long  heads  are 
on  the  coast,  while  the  broad  heads  are  inland.  Hence  the  people 
with  broad  heads  came  from  the  land,  those  with  long  heads  from 
the  sea. 

broad  mass  of  highlands  between  Rome  and  the  Adriatic 
on  the  east.  This  southern  highland  mass  descends  so 
abruptly  to  the  sea  that  progress  along  the  coast  lands 
on  the  east  is  beset  with  difficulties,  which  are  increased 
by  the  existence  of  many  streams  that  have  to  be  crossed 
by  anyone  passing  from  north  to  south.  Landmen  enter- 
ing the  peninsula  from  the  north  almost  certainly  cross 
over  these  Etruscan  Apennines  by  one  of  the  river  valleys 
between  Bologna  and  the  Metaurus.     When  they  have 


ROME 


77 


done  this,  they  are  as  surely  guided  down  the  valley 
of  the  Tiber  along  the  western  edg°  of  the  raid- Italian 
Apennines.  Even  if  they  cross  over  consideiably  north 
of  the  Tiber,  the  advance  is  most  probably  made  up  the 


THE   POSITION   OF  ROME. 

The  diagram  shows  Rome  at  the  plr.ce  where  ways  from  the 
north  meet,  and  where  the  peoples  of  the  south  may  stand  on  the 
defensive. 

valley  of  the  upper  Arno,  and  along  the  valley  between 
that  river  and  the  Tiber.  In  any  case,  between  the  sea 
and  the  highland,  landmen  will  almost  certainly  come  to 
Rome,  but  here  they  are  as  certainly  in  touch  with  the 


78   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WOULD  POWER 

influences  from  overseas  based  pn  the  peninsulas  and 

harbours  of  southern  Italy.  There  is  thus  every  reason 
why,  owing  to  geographical  conditions,  civilizations 
based  on  sea  and  forces  based  ou  the  laud  should  meet 
in  Italy,  somewhere  in  the  midst  of  Italy  and  at  or 
near  the  position  of  Rome. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  consider  the  matter  more 
in  detail,  but  as  they  illustrate  the  history  of  the  Roman 
Empire  in  little,  it  is  useful  to  notice  two  points.  If 
Latium  had  advantages  over  the  rest  of  Italy,  Rome 
had  advantages  over  Latium.  Placed  on  the  Tiber,  at 
a  position  capable  of  defence  though  always  exposed  to 
attack,  her  inhabitants  would  naturally  be  continually 
prepared  for  defence.  They  might  suffer,  but  however 
much  they  might  suffer  from  roving  bands  of  invaders 
the  probability  was  that  they  would  suffer  less  than 
those  towns  to  the  south.  Thus  relatively  they  would 
become  stronger  than  their  neighbours,  and  Rome 
would  take  the  lead  in  Latium.  Also,  though  the  early 
history  is  obscure  and  seems  confused,  the  obscurity 
and  confusion  are  just  what  we  might  expect  from  the 
conditions.  Moreover,  almost  the  only  fact  that  can 
be  laid  hold  of  is  that  the  origin  of  the  city  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  on  some  slight  eminences  rising  out  of 
a  plain-  men  of  different  tribes  settled.  These  tribes 
learned,  in  the  face  of  common  dangers,  to  drop  internal 
differences.  They  learned,  moreover,  that  the  best 
defence  lay  in  themselves.  The  inhabitants  of  Rome 
thus  learned  what  the  inhabitants  of  Athens  did  not 
learn,  that  each  man  was  not  independent,  but  that 
account  must  be  taken  by  each  of  the  opinions  and 
character  of  the  rest.  No  single  man  may  have  clearly 
understood  this,  but,  as  a  whole,  they  acted  on  the 


ROME  79 

principle  because  they  found  by  experience  that  it  was 
best  to  do  so. 

When  the  city  or  town  of  Rome  began  to  extend  her 
influence  over  surrounding  communities,  she  was,  on 
the  one  hand,  more  able  to  bring  them  to  subjection, 
and,  on  the  other,  less  inclined  to  domineer  over 
them  unnecessarily.  Rome  was  definitely  the  one  town 
in  central  Italy  south  of  the  Tiber,  and  in  this  she  was 
more  favourably  situated  than  was  Athens.  Further, 
the  peoples  by  whom  she  was  surrounded  were  almost 
as  civilized  as  were  her  own  inhabitants.  They  were 
for  this  reason  more  difficult  to  subdue  than  were  the 
inferior  folk  with  whom  the  Carthaginians  came  into 
contact,  but  when  they  were  subdued  they  were  treated 
more  as  equals.  Cruel  these  early  Romans  may  appear 
in  our  eyes,  but  they  were  probably  less  cruel  than  other 
races.  The  cruelty  of  which  they  were  guilty  was  not, 
on  the  whole,  indulged  in  for  the  sake  of  giving  pain 
to  others.  It  was  a  cruelty  the  results  of  which  had 
been  calculated,  and  which  had  been  decided  on  in  the 
interests  of  good  government — that  is,  to  save  energy 
in  the  long  run.  The  Roman  Government  was  thus 
more  stable,  not  only  than  that  of  Grecian  cities,  but 
also  than  that  of  Carthage. 

We  have  now  seen  how  the  larger  facts,  as  well  as 
the  local  conditions,  tended  to  induce  in  Rome  the 
growth  of  a  civilization  of  a  higher  order  than  had 
hitherto  appeared  on  the  earth,  though  the  local  con- 
ditions would  have  had  no  effect  had  not  the  larger 
facts  existed.  With  the  increasing  expansion  of  Roman 
power  another  set  of  controls  was  increasingly  important. 
The  great  variety  of  relief  and  circumstance  to  be  found 
in  Italy   came  to  affect  the  history.     We  have  seen 


80        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

how  Italy  differs  Erom  that  other  peninsula,  Greece.  It 
may  also  be  contrasted  with  those  other  peninsulas, 
Iberia  and  Denmark.  Spain  is  predominantly  high, 
Denmark  is  predominantly  low ;  whereas  in  Italy  high- 
lands and  lowlands  are  present  in  almost  equal  propor- 
tions. There  were  in  Italy  peoples  with  the  different 
outlook  on  life  resulting  from  the  different  conditions 
due  to  land  and  sea.  There  were  the  southern  coasts 
in  touch  with  the  sea,  and  settled  to  such  an  extent  by 
the  Greeks  as  to  deserve  the  name  of  "  Greater  Greece." 
The  inhabitants  of  these  cities  were  traders,  and  wealth 
abounded.  The  northern  lands  had  a  civilization  in 
which  the  sea  had  less  share,  and  were  exposed  to  in- 
fluences which  depended  not  at  all  on  the  sea.  But  in 
addition  to  this  there  were  herdsmen  and  shepherd 
communities  on  the  uplands  and  mountains,  and  agri- 
cultural folk  on  the  lowlands,  and  between  these  there 
were  again  differences.  To  the  north  of  Rome  were 
the  Umbrian  and  Etruscan  peoples;  to  the  south  the 
cities  of  Tarentum  and  Thurii;  but  even  closer  to  the 
plains  of  the  lower  Tiber  were  the  Sabine  hills  and 
the  high-lying  lands  of  Samnium.  The  problem  of  the 
Roman  state,  as  it  expanded,  was  thus  of  the  same 
nature  as  the  problem  of  the  city  of  Rome,  and  because 
the  lessons  of  government  had  been  learned  in  the  city, 
the  inhabitants  of  the  state  were  able  to  evolve  a  system 
of  government  whereby  the  most  was  made  of  the 
energies  of  all  the  varied  communities  which  came  to 
recognize  Rome  as  supreme. 

The  new  ideas  of  government,  induced  by  the  geo- 
graphical conditions,  had  their  effect  on  the  history  in 
three  ways. 

The  Assyrian  Empire  was  based  on  the  idea  of  con- 


ROME  81 

quering  countries  for  the  sake  of  the  tribute  that 
could  be  wrung  from  them.  At  any  rate  in  earlier 
times,  when  the  traditions  of  government  were  forming, 
this  was  not  the  case  in  Rome.  There  the  idea  was  to 
Romanize  the  different  units,  to  make  them  one,  while 
recognizing  that  there  were  differences.  The  process 
was  somewhat  slow  at  first,  but  it  was  thorough,  for 
there  resulted  a  solid  nucleus  in  central  Italy  altogether 
Roman  in  feeling.  The  city  gave  its  name  to  the 
governing  state  because  of  this  fact.  The  internal 
troubles  of  the  Roman  state  were  never  due  to  revolts 
against  Rome,  but  to  attempts  to  obtain  fuller  advan- 
tages of  the  government.  Rome  was  something  very 
different  from  Carthage  or  Assyria. 

But  neither  was  there  the  Greek  and  Phoenician  lack 
of  unity  in  action ;  Rome  was  no  mere  Tyre  and  Sidon, 
the  chief  among  its  equals,  nor  an  Athens,  the  leading 
city  of  a  league.  In  a  sense  these  had  common  aims; 
Rome  had  something  more.  The  people  of  Rome  had  had 
to  defend  themselves.  Rome  was  not  protected,  though 
her  position  was  suitable  for  defence.  There  is  a  great 
difference :  the  one  condition  makes  for  virility,  the  other, 
as  we  have  seen  in  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  does  not  do  so. 
The  Roman  government  might  recognize  that  the  peculi- 
arities of  individuals  had  to  be  reckoned  with,  but  that 
did  not  imply  that  there  would  be  any  effeminacy  or 
desire  to  escape  from  the  duties  of  their  position.  Rome 
was  to  be  supreme.  There  was  to  be  not  only  a  common 
aim,  but  a  central  government. 

The  great  discovery  of  the  Romans  for  the  saving  of 
bodily  energy  was  also  due  to  the  same  attitude  of  mind. 
It  is  quite  in  keeping  with  what  we  might  expect,  that 
roads,  made  roads,  should  have  been  constructed  for 

G 


82   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 


the  purpose  of  strategy  or  commerce  first  by  the  Romans, 
that  a  Roman,  Appius  Claudius,  should  have  been  the 
first  man  to  have  a  road— the  Via  Appia,  laid  south- 
wards on  the  plain  from  Koine.  The  saving  of  energy 
by  good  centralized  government  implied  that  there 
should  be  a  centre,  and  that  that  centre  should  be  easily 


THE    VIA    APPIA. 

The  road  as  far  as  possible  follows  the  lowest  ground. 

reached  from  the  districts  round  it.  Roads  are  the 
easiest  means  whereby  this  may  be  done  on  land,  but 
roads  had  not  hitherto  existed  in  the  world.  In  the 
long  past  times  of  Chaldea  and  Egypt,  men  had  passed 
from  the  one  to  the  other  by  the  "  Way."  Men  and 
the  animals  with  them  stepped  the  whole  distance,  and 
all  that  was  carried  was  carried  on  the  backs  of  animals. 


ROME  83 

Then  the  Phoenicians  discovered  that  the  way  by  water 
was  easier  than  that  by  land ;  oars  and  sails  gave  much 
more  result  for  a  given  expenditure  of  energy.  The 
discovery  which  the  Romans  made  was  that  movement 
of  men  and  animals  was  more  easy  over  a  smooth,  level, 
hard  surface  than  over  a  rough,  uneven,  soft  one,  and 
that  wheels  might  be  used  with  even  greater  advantage, 
so  that  animals  might  draw  very  much  more  than  it  was 
possible  for  them  to  carry.  No  doubt  roads  and  wheels 
had  been  known,  but  the  discovery  of  how  to  use  them 
on  a  large  scale  was  due  to  the  Romans.  Geographical 
conditions  are  directly  or  indirectly  mainly  responsible. 
The  alluvium  of  Egypt  and  Chaldea  was  little  suited 
to  the  making  of  roads ;  the  want  of  stone,  especially 
in  Chaldea,  made  it  almost  impossible  that  roads  should 
be  constructed.  On  the  deserts,  whether  round  Egypt 
or  between  Egypt  and  Chaldea,  movement  was  possible 
in  any  direction.  There  was  not  the  inducement  to  make 
roads,  especially  as  there  was  at  best  but  little  traffic^ 
and  the  desert  sand  might  soon  obliterate  roads  when 
made.  More  important  than  all,  there  was  not  enough 
centralization  of  energy  to  make  it  worth  while  to  con- 
struct roads.  Assyria  was  in  a  like  case.  The  Phoeni- 
cians, whether  of  Phoenicia  or  Carthage,  looked  too  much 
to  the  sea  as  a  way  to  have  thoughts  of  made  roads  on 
land.  In  Greece  the  lack  of  unity,  both  geographical  and 
political,  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  the  Greeks  did  not 
construct  roads.  They  wished  to  be  separate  from  their 
neighbours,  not  bound  to  them.  In  the  case  of  Rome, 
there  was  the  inducement  —  the  stimulus  —  to  make 
roads,  arising  from  the  fact  that  there  was  no  natural 
way  like  the  desert  or  the  sea,  and  the  existence  of  stone 
was  a  new  geographical  possibility. 


81        GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

Shortly  after  300  B.C.  Rome  had  united  all  peninsular 
Italy  under  her  rule.  Thereafter  she  proceeded  to  ex- 
tend the  borders  of  her  empire  to  take  in  neighbouring 
lands  and  seas.  The  lines  along  which  the  Romans  had 
advanced  were  still  the  lines  along  which  they  con- 
tinued to  advance.  The  history  of  the  Roman  power 
was  still  due  to  the  interaction  of  the  two  geographical 
controls,  the  sea  and  the  land ;  but  because  the  Roman 
power,  though  still  centred  in  Rome,  was  something 
more  than  it  had  been,  the  effects  were  yet  more 
complex. 

(i)  Because  the  Roman  power  was  something  more 
than  the  power  of  the  city  of  Rome,  because  it  now 
dominated  all  the  peninsula,  the  conditions  of  Italy  as 
distinct  from  those  of  the  city  on  the  Tiber,  came  to 
have  a  new  significance.  The  city  owed  its  existence 
and  growth  largely  to  the  fact  that  where  Rome  was, 
there  the  forces  from  sea  and  land  met.  When  the 
Roman  state  came  to  be  coterminous  with  the  peninsula, 
the  forces  themselves  came  to  have  a  new  importance, 
for  then  the  state  was  brought  into  more  direct  relations 
not  only  southwards  with  a  sea  on  which  lay  islands  that 
always  provided  a  foothold  for  enemies  by  sea,  but  also 
northwards  with  the  land,  whence  attack  was  possible 
from  men  who,  if  less  civilized,  might  yet  come  in  greater 
numbers,  because  the  land  was  of  great  extent.  She  was 
forced,  as  was  Persia,  to  equip  a  fleet  to  dispute  the 
command  of  the  sea  with  those  who  might  maintain  a 
hostile  base  close  to  the  shores  of  Italy,  while  it  was 
equally  natural  that  expansion  should  take  place  land- 
ward.    These  were  new  facts. 

(ii)  But  because  Rome  was  still  the  centre  of  govern- 
ment, because  the  traditions  of  the  people  of  the  city 


ROME  85 

weighed  heavily  in  the  balance,  the  local  conditions  and 
the  historical  momentum  still  had  great  effect. 

(a)  The  sea  was  not  unfamiliar  to  the  people  of  Rome, 
as  it  had  been  to  the  Persian  monarchs.  It  washes  the 
shores  within  but  a  few  miles  of  the  city,  and  not  only 
were  the  cities  to  the  southward,  which  Rome  had  more 
lately  made  her  own,  actually  dependent  on  the  sea, 
but  Roman  tradition  points  to  a  much  earlier  control 
over  cities  on  the  coast  of  Latium.  Without  this  early 
and  constant  familiarity  with  the  sea  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  the  existence  of  the  peninsulas  and  islands  on 
the  south  would  have  so  quickly  reacted  in  the  way  it  did. 

(b)  On  the  other  hand,  Italy  was  no  Greece;  Rome 
was  the  centre  which  the  rest  of  Italy  acknowledged  as 
supreme.  Rome  had  not  even  the  position  of  Mace- 
donia. The  whole  rule  was  not  the  work  of  one  or 
two  men  only;  many  of  the  citizens  might  be  called 
on  to  lead  armies  or  rule  the  state  :  naturally,  not  all 
of  these  were  equal  to  the  task,  but  the  fact  remains 
that  in  a  crisis  a  man  able  for  the  emergency  generally 
appeared.  For  similar  reasons  even  the  fighting  machine 
itself  was  proportionately  more  efficient  than  the  Mace- 
donian phalanx,  and  the  government  of  subject  states 
was  the  more  stable.  This  condition  of  things  was 
largely  due  to  historical  momentum,  to  the  tendency  of 
existing  conditions  to  continue  to  exist. 

(c)  The  ideals  which  the  citizens  of  Rome  had  ever 
before  them  in  their  early  days  also  affected  their  later 
history.  Rome  was  not  a  Carthage.  It  was  not  trade 
that  was  desired,  but  the  Pax  Romana  and  land  on  which 
to  grow  things  to  support  life.  This  was  the  result  of 
geographical  conditions,  and  it  affected  the  history  of 
the  greatly  expanded  state. 


86        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWEB 

These  factors  have  all  to  be  remembered.  Rome 
was  successively  embroiled  with  Carthage  and  Greece, 
because  of  their  connections  with  the  peninsulas  and 
islands  of  the  south.  Her  armies  were  superior  to 
those  of  Macedonia  and  Carthage;  her  fleets  even- 
tually proved  stronger  than  any  brought  against  her. 
By  116  B.C.  Carthage  was  destroyed,  and  Greece  was 
forced  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  Rome.  When 
Greece  and  Carthage  ceased  to  be  independent  sea- 
powers,  there  was  no  one  to  dispute  the  sovereignty 
of  the  seas,  and  the  lands  bordering  the  Mediterranean 
speedily  fell  to  the  power  that  held  the  command  of 
the  sea,  but  yet  the  Romans  made  little  attempt  to 
become  traders.  The  island  of  Rhodes,  between  Phoe- 
nician and  Greek,  for  long  was  the  chief,  if  not  the 
only,  seat  of  a  mercantile  community,  and  Rome  did 
not  attempt  to  crush  these  merchants;  they  were  not 
rivals.  In  the  absence  of  an  effective  rule  of  the  sea, 
anarchy  appeared.  At  first  this  was  little  felt;  mili- 
tary expeditions  were  undertaken  most  easily  by  sea, 
because  the  pirates  that  had  sprung  up  would  not 
attack  them.  It  was  only  when  the  Romans  began  to 
draw  their  supplies-  from  lands  other  than  their  own 
that  they  found  it  necessary  to  clear  the  seas  of  these 
sea-robbers,  who  found  an  excellent  base  in  the  islands 
of  the  east.  That  piracy  had  been  allowed  to  increase 
from  lack  of  inclination  to  deal  with  it,  not  from 
lack  of  sea-power,  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  in  the  short 
space  of  forty  days  Pompey  drove  the  pirates  from  the 
seas.  Rome  could  dominate  the  sea  when  she  chose.  It 
is  evident  that  she  was  a  sea-power  on  a  much  greater  scale 
than  was  either  Greece  or  Carthage.  Henceforward  for 
many  centuries  the  Mediterranean  is  entirely  Roman. 


ROME  87 

Battles,  and  famous  battles  they  were,  were  fought  ou 
it,  but  they  were  between  rival  candidates  for  the 
supremacy  of  the  state,  not  between  Rome  and  external 
foes. 

Now  while  it  is  true  that  many  of  the  later  Roman 
dominions  were  reached,  or  reached  more  easily,  by  means 
of  the  sea,  this  was  not  so  in  all  cases.  Further,  these 
dominions  overseas  were  not  mere  strips  of  coast,  but 
tracts  of  country  which  required  to  be  ruled  and  kept 
in  touch  with  the  central  government.  Thus,  though 
the  sea  was  a  controlling  factor  in  Roman  history,  the 
land  was  equally  so. 

We  must  now  consider  another  great  geographical  con- 
trol. Besides  the  great  contrast  between  sea  and  land 
there  is  another  great  contrast,  namely,  that  between  high 
ground  and  low  ground.  Notice  that  it  is  not  the  con- 
trast between  hills  and  valleys,  but  between  high  ground 
and  low  ground.  There  are  districts  where  the  level 
of  the  land  is  but  little  above  that  of  the  sea,  and  dis- 
tricts raised  half  a  mile,  a  mile,  or  even  two  miles  high. 
Even  this  latter  height  is  negligible  on  a  horizontal 
scale,  but  it  is  an  enormous  vertical  distance  because  of 
the  fact  that  at  a  great  height  there  are  entirely  differ- 
ent conditions  of  living.  There  is  less  air,  there  is  less 
heat  and  moisture.  Unchangeably  the  conditions  of  life 
on  a  low  district  must  remain  different  from  the  con- 
ditions of  life  on  highlands.  It  affects  even  the  bodies 
of  men;  negroes  cannot  live  long  at  heights  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  mile,  owing  probably  to  the  difference  in 
amount  of  air;  but  this  is  only  one  aspect  of  the  case. 
The  conditions  under  which  vegetation  is  produced  are 
different,  and  generally  the  conditions  under  which 
energy  may  be  saved  are  different.     Hence,  races  who 


88        GEOGRAPHY    AND    WORLD   POWEB 

live  on  highlands  will,  must,  have  different  occupations, 
different  habits,  different  food,  different  ideals,  different 
ways  of  thinking  from  the  lowland  races.  Two  lowland 
peoples  on  either  side  of  a  highland  area  are  divided 
not  by  mountains  only,  but  by  peoples  entirely  different 
from  them  in  almost  every  respect,  and  each  of  the 
three  forms  a  separate  unit.  The  Alps,  for  example, 
rise  at  their  highest  to  a  height  of  three  miles,  and 
average  a  mile,  but  they  are  120  miles  across.  That  is 
to  say,  the  important  fact  is  not  so  much  that  the 
Alps  are  a  mountain  range  as  that  they  are  a  highland 
area.  The  modern  Switzerland,  the  Tyrol  and  Savoy, 
are  highland  states  on  the  Alps,  whose  peoples  are  and 
have  always  been  different  from  the  peoples  on  either 
side. 

Now  we  have  seen  that  Italy  is  composed  of  tracts 
of  highland  and  tracts  of  lowland.  The  differences 
among  the  peoples  ruled  by  Rome  were  due  to  the 
differences  between  highland  and  lowland,  as  well  as 
to  differences  due  to  the  contrast  between  sea  and  land ; 
and  the  same  race  which  had  developed  qualities  of 
government  on  a  smaller  stage  in  Italy  was  able  to 
furnish  rulers  for  the  different  lands  that  wrere  subdued. 
There  were  in  the  later  Roman  Empire  many  units 
whose  inhabitants  were  naturally  hostile  to  one  another. 

Again,  they  were  united  by  the  same  methods  as  had 
been  used  to  unite  Italy.  As  the  sea  could  not  every- 
where be  used  as  a  way,  roads  were  driven  over  the  whole 
of  south  and  western  Europe  to  such  an  extent  as  to  make 
it  a  proverb  that  all  roads  lead  to  Rome.  And  the 
same  tendency  to  centralized  government  is  again  to 
be  noticed,  for  all  the  roads  did  lead  to  or  from  Rome  : 
there  were  few  cross-roads  connecting  various  units,  so 


ROME 


89 


that  there  might  be  as  little  intercommunication  as 
possible,  and  the  less  chance  of  combination  against 
the  ruling  power.  These  roads,  too,  naturally  followed 
the  line  of  least  resistance;  they  were  constructed 
where  there  was  the  least  expenditure  of  energy,  so 
that  for  this  reason  also  the  distribution  of  high  ground 
and  low  ground  in  the  lands  surrounding  Italy  came  to 
have  increasing  importance. 

A  glance  at  a   map  of  Europe  will  show  that    all 


THE   KHONE   ENTRY. 

The  Rhone  Valley  is  important  as  affording  the  one  easy  way 
northwards  from  the  Mediterranean. 


the  way  from  the  west  of  the  Black  Sea  to  the  Rhone 
there  is  a  belt  of  highland  over  which  no  access  can 
be  had  to  the  plain  beyond  except  by  rising  to  con- 
siderable heights.  Spain  also  is  a  tableland.  In  the 
gap  between  the  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees  is  set  an 
isolated  mountain  mass  with  its  steep  edge  facing 
southward.  This  does  not  close  the  entry.  The  Rhone 
valley  is  left  to  give  access  to  the  land  beyond — the 
only  easy  land  way  from  the  Mediterranean  northwards. 
Thus,  though  the  highlands  of  the  Alps  were  occupied 


90        GEOGRAPHY    AND    WOULD   POWER 

by  hostile  tribes,  it  is  little  wonder  that  this  entry, 
accessible  from  the  sea,  should  have  been  easily  held 
by  the  Romans,  and  thai  the  whole  of  what  is  modern 
France  should  quickly  have  conic  under  their  rule. 

Later,  the  Empire  expanded  north-eastward  and  east- 
ward until,  by  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  there 
was  added  to  all  the  lands  rimming  the  Mediterranean, 
which  the  power  of  the  sea  had  given  her,  also  those 
west  and  south  of  the  Rhine  and  Danube ;  while,  in 
the  east,  Asia  Minor  and  the  lands  west  of  the  Euphrates 
owned  her  rule.  This  was  the  Roman  Empire.  Here 
for  some  three  or  four  centuries  the  Pax  Romana 
allowed  of  the  growth  of  a  civilization  over  very  different 
and  widely  scattered  areas,  which  had  no  natural 
cohesion  except  that  which  was  due  to  their  common 
dependence  on  the  Roman  power  and  administration. 
Their  peoples  were  able  in  peace,  without  spending 
their  energies  in  war,  to  turn  to  useful  account  such 
advantages  as  their  positions  gave  them. 

The  Empire  had  been  built  up  by  a  power  centralized 
at  Rome.  It  owed  its  cohesion  mainly  to  the  military 
and  administrative  genius  of  its  people,  which  was 
largely  the  result  of  geographical  controls.  Because  it 
was  the  race  and  not  an  individual  man  who  possessed 
this  genius,  the  Roman  Empire  was  not  an  interlude 
like  the  Macedonian  Empire.  It  existed  strong  and 
powerful  till  the  fifth  century  of  our  era.  In  the  form 
of  the  Byzantine  Empire  it  fell  only  with  the  fall  of 
Constantinople  in  1453,  and  in  name  it  lasted  till  the 
other  great  Alexander,  Napoleon,  swept  away  the  ancient 
traditions  in  Europe.  Such,  again,  is  the  strength  of 
momentum.     Because  it  had  been  it  continued  to  be. 

Like  the  other  powers  which  had  exercised  rule  over 


ROME  91 

the  world,  the  Roman  Empire  came  to  an  end,  but  it 
came  to  an  end  almost  as  gradually  as  it  had  grown, 
for  the  great  geographical  controls  came  to  make 
themselves  felt  in  another  way. 

(a)  The  Mediterranean  Sea  is  long  and  narrow.  The 
Roman  Empire,  based  on  the  lands  rimming  this  sea, 
was  thus  long  and  narrow,  about  twice  as  long  as  it 
was  broad.  The  desert  on  the  south  leaves  between 
it  and  the  sea  only  a  narrow  margin  at  best,  so  that  if 
we  consider  only  the  land  on  the  north  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean, in  which  was  the  important  part  of  the  Empire, 
a  greater  disproportion  between  length  and  breadth 
will  be  seen.  There  was,  then,  a  natural  tendency  to 
divide  into  two  parts  whenever  the  power  that  held 
the  whole  together  became  of  less  effect. 

(b)  The  eastern  end  of  the  Mediterranean  was  differ- 
ent from  the  west.  Just  because  it  is  far  removed 
from  the  ocean,  just  because  it  contains  the  oasis  lands 
of  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia,  and  because  Greece  with 
its  islands  is  also  in  this  region,  it  is  different  from 
the  west  in  many  ways  easily  to  be  recognised.  The 
difference  between  east  and  west  had  been  there  all 
the  time.  The  difference  was  there  even  before  the 
Republic  of  Rome  became  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the 
difference  has  lasted  all  through  history.  It  is  no  acci- 
dent that  Actium  and  Lepanto  and  Navarino  should 
all  have  been  fought  just  west  of  Greece  where  the  sea 
forces  of  the  Western  Mediterranean  meet  those  of  the 
Eastern.  The  Roman  Empire  held  the  two  parts  together, 
but  with  the  weakening  of  the  bonds  the  parts  separated. 

(c)  Further,  the  Sahara  desert  lies  to  the  south  of  the 
Mediterranean,  so  that  attack  was  little  to  be  feared 
from  that  side;   westward  and  north-westward  lay  the 


92   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

ocean,  from  which  no  attack  could  come  in  early  times, 
but  all  north-eastward  and  eastward  was  the  great 
mass  of  Euro- Asia,  of  which  Rome  ruled  only  a  rim. 
From  this  mass  enemies  could — and  did — come.  It  was 
natural  that  the  centre  of  government  should  be  shifted 
eastward,  nearer  the  frontier  that  required  defence,  in 
order  that  that  defence  might  be  more  easily  under- 
taken. Because  the  city  of  Rome  had  been,  it  con- 
tinued to  be  :  just  because  it  had  a  history,  it  could 
not  at  once  become  a  provincial  town,  so  that  when 
Constantine  set  up  his  capital  at  Constantinople  there 
were  two  Imperial  cities  within  the  Empire,  one  in  the 
east  and  one  in  the  west,  and  an  additional  impetus 
was  given  to  the  tendency  towards  disruption. 

(d)  Lastly,  Rome  had  owed  her  very  existence  to 
the  ability  of  her  citizens  to  defend  themselves,  but 
just  because  they  were  far  removed  from  any  menace 
of  attack  by  men  outside  the  Empire,  the  later  Romans 
gradually  lost  their  powers  both  of  defence  and  govern- 
ment. When  attacks  at  last  did  come,  the  barbarian 
hosts  passed  by  the  newer  and  more  virile  city  of 
Constantinople,  but  ancient  Rome  fell  before  them. 

Thus  the  Roman  Empire  gradually  divided  into  two 
parts  having  less  and  less  cohesion.  The  eastern  section 
continued  to  carry  on  the  ancient  traditions  in  a  modified 
form  for  a  thousand  years,  but  with  the  fall  of  Rome 
itself  the  western  section,  far  from  any  centralized 
government,  became  separated  from  the  Eastern  Empire 
and  resolved  itself  into  separate  and  often  antagonistic 
units. 

Then  the  geographical  conditions  controlled  history 
in  a  different  way  from  that  in  which  they  had  done, 
because  that  which  was  to  be  controlled  was  different. 


ROME  93 

Set  between  forces  from  sea  and  land,  but  possessing  no 
strong  power  within  itself  at  a  time  when  no  strong  power 
ruled  on  either  land  or  sea,  Italy  was  the  sport  of  history 
for  centuries.  For  a  time  in  the  hands  of  one  power, 
regained  for  a  moment  by  the  Eastern  Empire,  taken 
and  retaken  in  whole  or  in  part,  whenever  a  seaman 
might  get  a  foothold  or  a  landman  settle ;  torn  between 
Goth  and  Lombard  and  other  Teutons  from  the  north,  and 
Vandal,  Saracen  and  Byzantine  in  the  south,  it  is  little 
wonder  that  Italy,  with  the  additional  tendency  to 
disruption  induced  by  that  very  variety  of  highland 
and  lowland  which  had  been  her  strength,  should  have 
had  no  united  history,  and  that  consequently  even  till 
within  the  last  sixty  years  the  rivalries  of  the  parts 
into  which  she  was  torn  should  have  been  the  most 
noteworthy  feature. 

And  the  variety  of  highland  and  lowland  of  which  the 
Empire  itself  was  composed  no  less  continued  to  control 
history.  The  units  remained,  and  the  history  of  the 
Middle  Ages  consists  simply  of  a  history  of  the  arrange- 
ments and  rearrangements  and  re-rearrangements  '  of 
these  units,  struggling  towards  the  more  or  less  perma- 
nent state  of  equilibrium  in  modern  Europe.  The 
Roman  Empire  had  stimulated  directly  or  indirectly  a 
great  number  of  geographical  units.  They  were  brought 
into  the  world;  each  was  civilized  but  in  a  different 
way,  and  the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  confusing 
simply  because  it  is  mainly  the  history  of  attempts  on 
the  part  of  those  small  and  mutually  jealous  units  to 
combine  in  stable  forms.  In  Western  Europe  these  units 
happen  to  be  small  and  numerous  because  low  ground  and 
high  ground  are  distributed  in  comparatively  small  areas, 
whose  inhabitants  are  mutually  jealous  of  each  other. 


9i       GEOGRAPHY   AND    WORLD    POWER 

But  the  importance  <>f  historical  momentum  must  not 
be  forgotten.  Because  history  has  to  do  with  the  minds 
of  men,  ideas  have  been  a  force  in  making  history. 
Because  of  circumstances  Rome  had  become  an  empire. 
The  great  discovery  of  the  Romans  had  been  that  good 
centralized  government  saved  energy,  and  the  idea  of 
empire  and  the  methods  of  government  remained  in 
the  minds  of  men  as  an  ideal  which  has  had  an  extra- 
ordinary effect  in  helping  to  combine  loosely  knit  units. 

And  this  idea  gained  additional  importance  because 
of  another  fact.  Because  of  the  ancient  prestige  of 
the  city  of  Rome,  as  well  as  because  of  this  idea  of 
empire,  the  bishop  of  Rome  came  to  have  a  power 
conceded  to  no  other.  When  the  civil  power  was 
destroyed,  the  ecclesiastical  authority  remained,  and 
grew  all  the  stronger  because  there  was  no  civil  authority 
with  which  it  clashed.  Even  the  ecclesiastical  pro- 
vinces remained  when  the  civil  provinces  with  which 
they  originally  were  identical  had  totally  disappeared. 
Thus  over  the  western  lands  of  the  Roman  Empire 
rather  than  over  the  eastern  Christianity  spread,  and 
the  Christianity,  too,  of  that  particular  type  which  is 
essentially  Roman. 

It  was  the  interaction  of  these  two  allied  ideals, 
Empire  and  the  Church,  on  the  natural  differences  due 
to  the  differences  of  the  units,  which  is  largely  responsible 
for  the  history  of  the  times  following  the  fall  of  Rome. 


V 

CHAPTER  VII 

THE    PLAIN  :    INVADING    TRIBES 

The  course  of  history  traced  so  far,  has  in  its  main  fea- 
tures been  due  to  the  control  and  stimulus  exerted  on  man 
by  two  geographical  factors,  the  desert  and  the  sea,  each 
acting  as  a  protection  to  communities  so  simply  organized 
as  not  at  first  to  be  bound  together  by  any  strong  ties. 
Other  controls  have  been  alluded  to,  but  they  have  only 
modified  the  action  of  these  greater  controls.  To  the 
facts  that  surrounded  by  the  desert  there  happened  to 
be  areas  of  fertile  land  and  that  surrounded  by  the  sea 
there  happened  to  be  islands,  were  due  the  earlier  civiliza- 
tions. Because  of  their  connection  with  those  early 
communities  other  communities  arose  which  owed  their 
existence  more  or  less  directly  to  the  same  geographical 
conditions,  and  because  they  were  near  the  original 
communities  they  were  of  necessity  near  the  desert  and 
the  sea. 

These  communities  were  neither  in  the  equatorial 
zones,  where  there  is  little  stimulus  to  advance,  nor  in 
the  colder  north,  where  the  difficulties  of  climate  were 
too  hard  for  primitive  men  singly  to  overcome  them  with 
any  degree  of  success.  They  were  for  the  most  part 
along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  on  such  parts 
as  could  be  occupied  by  man.  But  there  were  early 
communities  eastward  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  and 

95 


96       GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

later  the  Roman  Empire  brought  the  west  of  Europe 
into  direct  touch  with  such  civilization  as  then  existed. 
Thus  Europe,  and  for  the  most  part  south  Europe,  had 
come  almost  inevitably  to  be  the  land  the  history  of 
whose  peoples  was  of  most  account  in  the  world,  because 
here  and  here  only  was  a  belt  of  desert  and  a  belt  of  sea 
studded  with  islands  and  divided  by  peninsulas. 

We  have  assumed  that  the  distributions  of  land  and 
water,  of  heat  and  cold,  of  rain  and  drought,  have  been 
all  through  historic  times  just  as  they  are  now.  This  is 
probably  true,  if  we  mean  by  historic  times  those  times 
whose  history  we  know,  but  there  is  good  reason  to 
suppose  that,  while  man  has  been  on  the  earth,  things 
have  not  always  been  as  they  are  now,  and  if,  as  we  have 
seen  in  the  case  of  Carthaginians  and  Romans,  past  con- 
ditions do  influence  later  history,  it  is  obvious  that  the 
prehistoric  geographical  conditions  must  also  have  acted 
as  controls  even  in  historic  times,  and  even  if  the  effects 
of  these  have  been  obliterated  by  the  action  of  others 
more  recent,  it  is  useful  to  notice  how  areas  with  which 
we  are  familiar  have  been  affected  by  conditions  different 
from  those  we  know. 

Now  as  things  stand  at  present,  it  counts  for  a  great 
deal  that  Europe  is  in  far  more  direct  relation  with  both 
Asia  and  Africa  than  is  either  with  the  other.  A  globe 
shows  that  Europe,  Asia  and  Africa  form  a  great  paral- 
lelogram, that  Europe  lies  between  a  great  part  of 
Asia  and  a  great  part  of  Africa,  and  that  in  particular 
the  lands  whose  history  we  have  considered  lie  in  a  band 
diagonally  across  the  great  land  mass  of  Euro-Asia- 
Africa. 

Thus  Europe,  the  land  of  early  civilization,  by  reason 
of  its  position  with  reference  to  the  great  distributions 


THE  PLAIN 


97 


of  land,  is  open  to  influences  from  two  directions  :  from 
the  south  from  Africa,  and  from  the  east  from  Asia. 

At  present  and  during  all  historic  times,  between 
Europe  and  Africa  there  has  intervened  not  only  the 
Mediterranean  but  also  the  Sahara  :  it  is  not  the  Mediter- 
ranean but  the  Sahara  that  separates  the  white  man  from 
the  black.     Even  now,  under  most  favourable  circum- 


THE   OLD-WORLD   PARALLELOGRAM. 

The  lands  which  have  an  early  history  lie  diagonally  across  the 
great  land  mass,  and  between  Asia  and  Africa. 

stances,  it  takes  three  months  to  cross  it,  and  the  measure 
of  its  efficiency  as  a  protection  may  be  realized  by  noting 
the  fact  that,  while  south  of  it  migrating  tribes  have 
wandered  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  con- 
tinent, while  in  Euro- Asia  there  is  scarcely  a  square 
mile  that  has  not  resounded  to  the  tread  of  alien  hosts, 
conquering  as  they  went  or  seeking  new  homes,  yet 
across  the   Sahara,  though   individuals  have  come  in 


98        GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

peace,  no  body  of  men  of  any  account  has  ever  come 
in  war  or  peace. 

Thus  through  historic  times  Africa  has  had  com- 
paratively little  effect  on  the  history  of  Europe.  The 
peoples  to  the  south,  in  a  naturally  low  state  of  civiliza- 
tion because  of  the  want  of  stimulus,  were  unable  to  cross 
this  great  barrier  and  have  the  only  effect  they  could 
have  :  they  could  not  destroy  such  civilizations  as  had 
grown  up  to  the  north  of  it.  The  desert  acted  as  a  pro- 
tection against  attacks  not  only  on  Egypt  but  on  all 
the  lands  in  which  the  Mediterranean  civilization  had 
grown  up — on  Phoenicia,  Greece,  Carthage  and  Rome. 

With  Asia,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  it  has  been 
different,  especially  in  historic  times.  There  has  been 
no  impenetrable  barrier  between  :  the  inhabitants  of 
Asia  have  been  able  to  throw  themselves  into  Europe, 
not  without  some  difficulty,  of  course,  but  the  feat  has 
been  possible,  and  it  has  been  accomplished. 

It  is  probable,  however,  that  in  prehistoric  times, 
after  man's  appearance  on  the  earth,  conditions  were 
somewhat  different.  It  is  probable  that  the  north  of 
Europe  was  colder  even  than  it  is  now,  that  over  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland,  Norway  and  Sweden,  the  north  of 
Russia  and  Germany,  and  over  all  the  seas  between,  there 
lay  for  ages  a  great  mass  of  ice.  South  and  east  of  this 
ice-sheet  was  a  great  sea,  of  which  the  Caspian  and  the 
Sea  of  Aral  are  now  the  remnants.  Southward  were  con- 
ditions other  than  those  we  know.  It  is  probable  that  the 
Sahara  was  not  such  an  utter  desert  as  now,  but  had  a 
moister  climate.  Also  there  is  some  evidence  to  show 
that  the  Mediterranean  was  not  so  much  of  a  barrier 
between  Africa  and  Europe,  possibly  because  the  land 
connections  were  more  continuous.     Thus,  on  the  one 


THE  PLAIN  99 

hand,  Europe  was  more  directly  connected  with  Africa 
and  less  directly  connected  with  Asia  than  is  now  the 
case,  and,  on  the  other,  the  north  of  Europe  was  even 
less  habitable  for  early  peoples  than  it  became  in  later 
times. 

Whatever  the  cause,  it  is  almost  certain  that  in  early 
prehistoric  times  men  of  the  same  race  wandered  over 
all  the  land  northward  from  tropical  Africa,  but  they 
had  little,  if  anything,  to  do  with  men  from  Asia.  To  the 
north,  as  the  life  was  harder,  fewer  men  roamed.  But 
of  this  time  we  have  no  record ;  there  is  no  history,  and 
it  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at ;  the  factors  were  absent 
which  so  controlled  man's  thoughts  and  actions  that  he 
was  stimulated  to  advance.  The  possibility  of  advance 
also  was  largely  lacking.  As  long  as  there  was  no  desert, 
there  was  no  history  worth  the  name. 

When  modern  climatic  conditions  began  to  come  into 
existence,  the  men  of  this  more  or  less  homogeneous  race 
who  inhabited  Euro- Africa  were  divided  from  each  other 
by  three  barriers,  and  it  may  be  that  the  three  were  but 
manifestations  of  one  phenomenon. 

(a)  The  way  from  Asia  somehow  became  more  open, 
and  a  race  of  men,  keeping  to  the  highlands  of  Asia  Minor, 
the  Balkans  and  the  Alps,  drove  a  wedge,  as  it  were,  of 
highlanders  between  the  lowlanders  on  either  side. 

(b)  The  Mediterranean  became  more  of  a  barrier  than 
it  had  been. 

(c)  The  desert  conditions  in  the  Sahara  became  more 
marked,  and  the  greatest  barrier  of  all  was  established. 

These  three  barriers  divided  the  original  race  into  four 
sets  of  men,  who,  exposed  to  climatic  and  other  geo- 
graphical influences,  have  gradually  by  adaptation  to 
environment  changed  and  fixed  their  characteristics. 


100      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

(a)  In  the  north  were  the  Teutonic  peoples,  at  first 
comparatively  few  in  number,  and  undarkened  by 
ezcee  ive  exposure  to  the  effect  of  the  sun's  rays. 

(6)  South  of  the  Alpine  highlands  was  a  race  which, 
under  blue  skies  and  beautiful  natural  surroundings,  is 
distinguished  by  the  exquisite  taste  for  form  and  colour 
which  has  been  developed. 

(c)  Shut  in  between  the  Mediterranean  and  the  desert 
are  the  Berbers,  who  under  hard  conditions  have  been 
little  able  to  develop,  and  the  Egyptians,  who  have 
responded  to  the  stimulus  of  the  yearly  rhythm  in  the 
supply  of  water. 

(d)  South  of  the  Sahara  are  the  Negroes,  black  and 
able  to  withstand  a  powerful  sun. 

Of  the  great  land  south  of  the  Sahara  we  shall  speak 
later.  Of  the  lands  between  the  Sahara  and  the  Alps 
we  have  already  spoken.  It  is  to  the  land  north  of  the 
Alps  that  we  must  now  look. 

With  the  change  in  the  climatic  conditions  not  only 
did  southern  Africa  become  a  land  apart,  but  Europe 
was  thrown  open  to  influences  from  Asia. 

Maps  of  Euro-Asia  show  a  great  band  of  high  ground 
along  its  eastern,  southern  and  western  borders.  Within, 
and  shut  off  from  the  sea  on  every  side  except  the  frozen 
north,  is  a  great  plain  roughly  triangle-shaped,  little  of 
it  higher  than  600  feet  above  sea-level.  This  is  the 
great  plain  of  the  world.  We  have  already  noticed  the 
essential  difference  between  highland  and  lowland,  and 
seen  that  in  Western  Europe  the  very  diversity  of  feature 
has  had  its  effect  on  history.  Here  the  point  to  be 
noticed  is  that  the  conditions  are  the  same  over  vast 
areas.  Notice  what  these  conditions  are.  This  plain  is 
remote  from  the  sea.     Not  only  is  it  remote,  but  a  belt 


THE  PLAIN 


101 


of  high  ground  intervenes.  Thus  breezes  from  the  sea 
have  lost  the  greater  part  of  their  moisture  ere  they 
reach  it :   over  the  whole  area  rainfall  is  scanty,  and 


Tk 


1?  NI3),  J^S0      •rt-^L 


% 


~~       1    Area  having  a  difference  of  over 
^M      50°  F.  between  the  mean  tem- 
peratures   of    warmest   and 
coldest  months. 


NJ^c^-^ 


TEE  LAND  OF  EXTREME  TEMPERATURE. 

little  but  grass  will  grow,  so  it  is  a  steppeland.  The 
remoteness  from  the  sea  has  another  result;  with  little 
moisture  in  the  air  either  to  temper  the  heat  of  the  sun 
when  he  shines  or  retain  the  heat  when  he  has  withdrawn, 
the  climate  is  everywhere  one  of  extremes. 


102      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 


These  conditions  have  affected  the  inhabitants  of  the 
plain  in  five  ways. 

(i)  There  is  some  stimulus  to  advance  owing  to  the 


#v«x 


^  vV^>   & 


Area  frozen  on  the  average 
£zzM  during     the     whole     of 


January. 


^Nb^cs*""^ 


THE   COLD   LAND, 

rhythmic  swing  of  the  seasons  :  as  a  hot  summer  alter- 
nates with  a  cold  winter,  men,  to  live  at  all,  must  not  be 
savages  of  a  type  which  may  exist  on  equatorial  plains. 
They  must  be  hardy  and  brave,  and  must  have  a 
certain  amount  of  physical  endurance. 


THE   PLAIN  103 

(ii)  As  the  land  is  flat  over  vast  areas  there  is  neither 
such  a  natural  defence  as  the  desert  gave  to  the  Egyptian 
or  the  marsh  to  the  Babylonian,  nor  is  there  a  natural 
position  for  defence  such  as  the  citizens  of  Rome  pos- 
sessed. These  people  must  defend  themselves.  The 
climatic  conditions  are  hard,  so  that  individuals  or 
families  would  almost  certainly  perish  if  left  to  them- 
selves. For  defence  alike  against  enemies  and  climatic 
conditions  there  must  be  organization  of  a  sort.  Thus 
these  folk  lived — and  live — in  tribes. 

(iii)  As  grass  is  the  staple,  in  most  regions  the  only, 
vegetable  production,  it  is  obvious  that  these  tribes 
cannot  live  directly  on  what  is  grown  on  the  land ; 
they  must  at  any  rate  be  able  to  use  the  energy  in 
a  more  concentrated  form.  They  must  live  on  animals 
and  on  what  animals  produce.  Thus  these  folk  were,  as 
they  mostly  still  are,  sheep-herds,  cattle-herds,  goat-herds 
and  horse-riders,  living  on  butter,  milk  and  flesh. 

(iv)  Now,  as  the  scanty  pasture  in  one  place  is  ex- 
hausted or  destroyed  by  sand  driven  by  powerful  winds, 
they  are  forced  to  pass  on  to  another.  The  natural 
difficulty  of  movement  on  land — a  difficulty  largely  due 
to  friction — is  overcome  by  a  greater  force  still :  the  de- 
sire for  life.  Further,  as  there  is  no  means  of  defence  at 
one  spot  more  than  in  another,  there  is  no  inducement 
to  stay  in  one  place  and  very  strong  reasons  why  tribes 
should  continually  move  on,  so  that  the  spirit  of  nomad- 
ism, of  wandering,  becomes  part  of  their  very  being. 

(v)  Again,  as  they  had  in  early  times  no  protection 
except  themselves,  they  were  compelled  to  destroy  all 
adversaries  whom  they  overcame,  being  assured  that 
otherwise  they  themselves  would  be  destroyed  if  ever  the 
fortunes  changed.     They  were  thus  a  cruel  race  of  men. 


10!      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

Whether  driven  out  by  increasing  dryness  or  moved 
only  by  their  own  natural  restlessness,  these  dwellers 
in  the  central  plain  during  all  the  times  of  which  history 
tells  have  been  a  disturbing  influence  on  the  more  or 
less  settled  peoples  on  the  margins,  and  again  and  always 
again  have  emerged  from  beyond  the  mountain  rim  to 
overthrow  rather  than  to  set  up,  to  destroy  rather  than 
to  create.  We  have  seen  how  the  Assyrian  Empire  was 
so  weakened  by  incursions  of  northern  tribes  that  it 
fell  soon  afterwards.  Perhaps  even  earlier  still  we  have 
traces  of  the  advent  on  eastern  lands  of  these  nomads 
from  beyond  the  mountains,  while  the  earlier  Greek 
civilization  also  was  for  a  time  overwhelmed  by  incur- 
sions from  the  north.  However  that  may  be,  it  is 
certain  that  as  we  come  to  know  more  surely  of  the 
actual  events  in  the  world,  the  influence  on  history  of 
these  migrating  tribes  becomes  more  and  more  clear. 

Now  Europe,  as  we  have  seen,  was  to  a  considerable 
extent  separated  from  Asia  in  prehistoric  times.  Thus 
the  plain  was  not  one  but  two.  It  is  doubtful  whether 
such  people  as  inhabited  each  section  of  the  plain  in 
those  distant  times  were  exposed  to  the  conditions  that 
induce  habits  characteristic  of  steppe-dwellers,  but  at  any 
rate  they  were  different  races.  Thus  the  invaders  from 
the  plain  were  of  two  kinds — the  bearded  inhabitants  of 
the  north  of  Europe,  the  Teutons,  and  the  beardless 
dwellers  on  the  plains  of  Asia,  the  Tatars  and  Mongols. 
This  difference  of  race  corresponded  to  other  differences 
due  to  geographical  causes.  As  it  happened,  the  peoples 
of  the  European  half  of  the  plain  were  more  in  touch  with 
civilizing  influences  than  were  those  of  the  eastern  half. 
We  have  seen  that  as  the  result  of  natural  conditions  the 
south  of  Europe  was  civilized  :    for  reasons  which  we 


INVADING  TRIBES  105 

shall  discuss  later  the  south  of  Asia  was  not.  In  anv 
case,  the  belt  of  highland  is  so  much  broader  in  Asia 
than  in  Europe  that  a  greater  barrier  is  interposed  to  the 
movement  either  of  men  or  of  ideas,  so  that  the  Asiatic 
half  of  the  plain  is  more  shut  off  from  other  centres 
of  civilization.  The  climatic  conditions,  too,  are  more 
rigorous  in  the  east  than  the  west.  As  the  mass  of  Asia 
is  so  much  greater  than  Europe  and  so  much  more  shut 
of!  from  the  sea,  the  temperatures  of  the  centre  are  more 
extreme.  The  breadth  and  height  of  the  Asiatic  high- 
lands, too,  prevent  rain  reaching  the  centre  in  anything 
but  small  amount,  and  the  distance  from  the  ocean,  and 
especially  the  western  ocean,  also  tends  to  make  the 
rainfall  smaller  than  that  of  Europe. 

Thus  the  European  plain-dwellers,  though  barbarians, 
were  considerably  more  civilized  or  less  uncivilized  than 
were  the  Asiatics.  They  had  the  characteristics  of  the 
plain-dwellers  rather  less  developed;  they  were  to  a 
slightly  greater  extent  attached  to  the  soil  and  the  less 
inclined  to  migrate.  As  might  be  imagined,  it  is  the 
Europeans  of  whom  in  early  times  we  hear  somewhat 
the  more,  but  the  probability  is  that  in  most  cases  the 
incursions  of  these  hosts  were  due  rather  to  the  disturb- 
ances of  the  Asiatic  nomads  who  were  pressing  on  their 
rear  than  to  any  overwhelming  desire  of  migration  which 
possessed  themselves. 

No  tribe  of  these  nomads  had  very  great  numbers. 
Though  organization  of  a  kind  was  necessary  for  its  very 
existence,  it  is  little  likely  that  a  moving  band  would  be 
so  highly  organized  as  to  be  able  to  include  many  in- 
dividuals without  some  confusion,  while  there  would  be 
a  great  advantage  in  having  to  provide  pasture  for  only 
comparatively  small  herds  of  those  animals  on  which 


km;    geography  and  world  power 

their  lives  depended.  But  though  any  tribe  might  be 
small  it  would  usually  exceed  the  numbers  of  settled 
people  at  the  point  at  which  it  had  arrived  :  these 
settled  peoples  would  be  forced  to  give  way  and  press 
in  turn  on  others  who  would  retire  before  the  attack. 
Thus,  just  in  proportion  as  these  tribes  were  true  no- 
mads, they  at  once  caused  more  destruction  of  settled 
peoples  and  their  organization,  and  also  left  little  mark 
on  the  further  history.  They  passed  over  the  land  like 
a  whirlwind  and  vanished. 

Remembering  all  these  results  of  the  geographical 
conditions,  look  now  at  the  details  of  the  history. 

Before  the  time  of  Rome  we  have  only  dim  ideas  of 
the  effects  these  peoples  had  on  the  history  of  civihzed 
lands.  We  hear,  indeed,  of  mysterious  northern  tribes 
who  were  looked  on  with  fear  by  all  the  civihzed  peoples 
of  ancient  time,  by  Assyrians  and  Persians  and  Greeks 
alike. 

Rome,  during  the  centuries  of  her  strength,  held  the 
barbarians  beyond  the  rivers,  but  when  Rome  split  in 
twTo,  when  the  ancient  city  of  Rome  gave  place  to 
Constantinople,  tribes  passed  into  all  the  lands  that 
owed  allegiance  to  her  rule,  partly  forced  by  the  move- 
ments of  the  utter  barbarians,  partly  attracted  by  hope 
of  plunder. 

As  was  natural,  the  Germanic  tribes  came  first — 
Chatti  and  Allemanni,  Goths  and  Vandals  :  it  was  the 
intrusion  of  those  tribes  that  finally  broke  up  the 
western  power  of  Rome.  They  set  up  kingdoms  within 
the  Roman  Empire,  at  first  owing  a  nominal  allegiance 
to  a  Roman  head,  but  gradually  loosening  the  ties  which 
bound  the  whole  together. 

In  the  third  century  came  the  Frankish  tribes  bringing 


INVADING  TRIBES  107 

discord  for  a  time  to  Italy  and  Spain,  but  shortly  dis- 
appearing among  the  rest  of  the  peoples.  Whether  or 
not  these  first  comers  were  greatly  affected  by  the  pres- 
sures from  the  plain  we  can  only  surmise,  but  we  know 
that  when  in  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  the  Goths, 
who  had  appeared  on  the  lower  Danube  a  century  before, 
began  to  press  on  Franks,  Germans  and  Romans,  they 
in  their  turn  were  pressed  on  by  the  far  more  terrible 
Huns.  In  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  the  Goths 
under  Alaric,  nominally  upholding  law  and  order,  in- 
vaded Italy,  and  Rome  was  sacked.  When  Alaric  died, 
however,  the  respect  for  the  power  of  Rome  was  still  so 
great  that  his  successor  withdrew  to  Southern  Gaul  and 
Northern  Spain,  setting  up  a  kingdom  which  lasted  for 
three  centuries,  but  recognizing  the  authority  of  Rome  so 
long  as  any  shadow  of  authority  remained  in  the  imperial 
city. 

In  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  the  Huns  under 
Attila — the  "  Scourge  of  God  " — also  came  from  the  east, 
and  penetrated  as  far  as  the  centre  of  what  is  now  France 
ere  they  received  a  check  in  one  of  the  great  battles  of 
the  world  at  Chalons. 

Again,  twenty- five  years  later,  another  wave  of  Goths 
came  out  of  the  east  and  set  up  in  Italy  a  kingdom  of 
their  own  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  power.1 

In  the  sixth  century  Slavonic  peoples  appeared  on 
the  borders  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  and  scattered 
over  all  the  lands  northward  to  the  Baltic.  They  had 
scarce  appeared  when  the  Avars,  the  most  dangerous 
of  all  the  invaders  and  ravagers  of  imperial  territory, 
emerged  from  the  vast  distances  beyond.    The  Germanic 

1  The  kingdom  of  Odoacer  was  nominally  under  the  East 
Roman  Empire,  but  practically  it  was  independent 


108      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

settlements  on  the  Danube  were  checked,  and  the  tribe 
known  to  history  as  the  Lombards  driven  from  their 
homes.  These  were  in  their  turn  forced  to  invade  Italy, 
where  they  set  up  a  kingdom,  and  gave  their  name  to  the 
plain  between  the  Alps  and  the  northern  Apennines — 
the  plain  of  Lombardy.  The  Avars  also,  by  occupying 
the  plain  of  Hungary  and  forming  the  beginnings  of  a 
kingdom  that  lasted  till  the  ninth  century,  drove  as  it 
were  a  wedge  between  the  northern  and  the  southern 
Slavs.  The  latter  moved  south  of  the  Danube  within  the 
Empire,  and  acted  as  a  defence  against  more  dangerous 
foes  still.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  series  of  small 
Slavonic  states  which,  now  free,  now  under  the  lordship 
of  a  stronger  power,  have  remained  to  this  day.  Serbia, 
Croatia,  Carinthia,  Dalmatia,  all  owe  their  origin,  as 
lands  inhabited  by  more  or  less  permanent  communities, 
to  the  settlements  of  the  Slavs  in  the  seventh  century. 

Almost  simultaneously  wi  th  the  invasions  of  the  Avars 
we  hear  of  the  inroads  of  another  tribe,  the  Bulgarians, 
who  established  a  kingdom  in  the  land  between  the 
Danube  and  the  Hsemus — a  land  still  called  by  their 
name.  At  various  periods  since  that  time  the  peoples 
in  this  land  have  asserted  their  freedom  and  raised 
Bulgarian  kingdoms  which  have  lasted  many  years,  but 
the  Bulgarians  as  well  as  the  Avars,  like  the  Normans 
in  England,  have  been  lost  among  the  people  whom 
originally  they  conquered. 

In  the  ninth  century  another  series  of  movements  took 
place  which,  having  their  origin  on  the  far  steppes  of 
Asia,  materially  affected  European  history.  At  the  end 
of  that  century  the  Khazars  corning  from  the  east  drove 
the  Patzinaks  from  the  district  of  the  Volga,  where  they 
had  appeared  some  fifty  years  earlier.     These  in  turn 


INVADING  TRIBES  109 

drove  another  eastern  people,  the  Magyars,  farther  to 
the  west,  so  that  again  the  Western  world  was  disturbed 
by  invasion.  As  usual,  the  advent  of  these  Magyars 
or  Hungarians  was  marked  by  raids,  but  in  a  com- 
paratively short  time  an  organized  government  was  set 
up  in  that  island  of  steppe  within  the  Carpathians, 
Hungary,  where  the  Magyars  remain  to  this  day,  a 
people  of  Eastern  descent  yet  received  within  the  circle 
of  nations  which  aim  at  Western  ideals  of  civilization. 
The  Patzinaks  and  Cumans,  who  had  taken  the  place  of 
the  Magyars  in  Southern  Russia,  were  up  till  the  twelfth 
century  a  power  to  be  reckoned  with  by  the  Empire  on 
the  Bosphorus,  but  have  long  since  passed  away. 

In  the  thirteenth  century  the  plain  came  under  the 
rule  of  one  man  —  the  great  Jenghiz  Khan  —  and  for 
three  centuries  his  successors  held  sway  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  over  Central  Asia,  sending  out  armies  which 
ravaged  and  subdued  for  shorter  or  longer  periods  the 
countries  on  the  margins.  In  the  thirteenth  century 
Russia,  Poland  and  Hungary  were  devastated  by  a 
general  of  the  great  Khan.  Later,  under  the  scarcely 
less  famous  Kublai  Khan,  Mesopotamia  was  conquered. 
In  the  fourteenth  century  Tamerlane  ruled  over  a  great 
part  of  Asia,  and  in  the  sixteenth  a  descendant  of  his 
invaded  India  and  established  the  kingdom  of  the  Great 
Moguls. 

Finally,  the  Turks  came  by  way  of  the  steppeland  of 
Asia  Minor  rather  than  by  the  gate  between  the  Urals 
and  the  Caspian.1  By  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century 
they  had  gained  control  of  all  this  area,  and  in  a  very 

1  The  movement  may  have  been  caused  by  those  Khasais 
who  had  been  instrumental  in  bringing  about  the  invasions  of 
the  Magyars. 


110      GEOGRAPHY  AND    WORLD    POWEB 

lew  years — by  the  time  oi  William  the  Conqueror — had 
added  a  considerable  stretch  of  land  to  the  south,  in- 
cluding Jerusalem.  This  caused  the  crusades  to  begin 
at  this  time,  but  otherwise  did  not  affect  European 
polities  till  much  later.  The  power  of  the  earlier  ruling 
house,  the  Seljuk  Turks,  was  in  fact  much  weakened  by 
the  Mongol  raids  on  their  eastern  front  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  it  was  only  when  the  Ottoman  Turks 
ai  ose  as  a  band  who  first  served  the  Seljuks  against  the 
Mongols  and  then  took  the  whole  power  to  themselves, 
that  advance  towards  Europe  was  continued.  Though 
a  large  part  of  what  was  but  lately  Turkey  in  Europe  fell 
into  their  hands  by  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
it  was  not  till  a  century  later,  in  1453,  that  Constan- 
tinople was  at  last  taken  and  the  Roman  Empire 
finally  came  to  an  end.  In  the  sixteenth  century 
even  Hungary  came  under  Turkish  rule,  and  remained 
so  till  the  end  of  the  seventeenth,  when  she  again 
became  free. 

Thus  we  see  as  an  ever-recurring  phenomenon  the 
emergence  of  peoples  from  the  plain  disturbing  the 
settled  folk  on  the  margins,  not  only  in  Europe,  be  it 
noticed,  but  also  in  "Western  Asia,  in  India  and  in  China. 
From  prehistoric  ages  to  within  a  few  centuries  of 
our  own  time  the  nomads  of  the  plain  have  acted  as  a 
solvent  on  the  fixed  conditions  of  the  people  on  the 
margins.  To  use  a  chemical  metaphor,  the  process  of 
crystallization  has  been  retarded.  The  crystals  already 
formed  have  been  dissolved,  but  always  after  a  while  new 
crystals  have  formed  to  an  even  greater  extent  than 
before.  Ever  more  and  more  geographical  units  have 
been  occupied  by  fixed  peoples  with  settled  govern- 
ments.    Egypt,  far  removed  from  the  plain,  was  little 


INVADING  TRIBES  111 

affected  by  the  nomads,  but,  as  we  have  seen,  Assyria, 
Greece  and  Rome  to  an  increasing  extent  were  impelled 
to  look  in  fear  towards  the  mountains  on  their  northward 
borders,  from  the  defiles  of  which  emerged  peoples  whose 
incentive  to  move  was  produced  by  the  steppe  conditions 
beyond.  The  Roman  Empire  was  more  exposed  than 
the  earlier  powers  to  the  incursions  of  these  tribes, 
for  her  borders  were  carried  north  and  eastward  of  the 
mountains  on  the  south  of  Europe,  and  her  frontiers 
lay  open  to  attack  far  more  than  did  the  frontiers  of 
the  earlier  empires.  Thus  it  is  that  the  later  history 
of  Rome  is  more  intimately  connected  with  the  history 
of  the  peoples  of  the  plain,  that  for  centuries  after  stable 
states  had  formed  in  Western  Europe  the  east  was  still 
open  to  forces  from  the  steppe,  and  that  the  Eastern 
no  less  than  the  Western  Empire  was  at  length  over- 
thrown by  the  incursions  of  the  steppe  peoples. 

The  effect  of  these  peoples  on  the  history  of  the  world 
is,  then,  obvious.  It  is  equally  obvious  that  geographical 
conditions  of  many  kinds  reacted  to  produce  this  effect. 
We  have  now  to  see  whether  there  was  really  any  advance, 
whether  there  was  really  any  saving  of  energy.  There 
was  certainly  some  waste.  The  great  "  going  concern  " 
of  the  Roman  Empire  was  largely  wrecked.  Were  there 
any  compensating  advantages  ?  Was  the  destruction  of 
a  great  part  of  the  Roman  Empire  absolute  waste,  or 
was  it  not  rather  the  "  scrapping  "  of  obsolete  machinery 
which  was  necessary  before  new  and  better  machinery 
could  take  its  place  ? 

The  advance  took  three  forms. 

(i)  Both  Asiatics  and  Western  barbarians  were  brave 
and  hardy.  The  majority  of  the  earlier  peoples  — 
Egyptians,  Babylonians,  Greeks,  Romans,  Phoenicians — 


112      GEOGRAPHY   AND  WORLD   POWER 

lived  undei  easier  geographical  o6ndition8,  but  just  be- 
cause of  the  hard  geographical  conditions  of  the  plain — 
hard  because  the  plain  lies  northward  and  less  natural 

energy  is  available — the  peoples  of  the  plain  possessed 
certain  qualities  in  a  higher  degree  than  did  the  peo- 
ples in  the  south,  and  these  qualities  tended  to  greater 
advance.  Personal  courage  was  necessary  to  fight 
against  daily  hardships  of  climate  and  sterile  soil  as  well 
as  against  human  enemies,  and  on  the  whole  the  Northern 
races  were  superior  in  bravery  to  the  rulers  in  Italy 
after  the  second  century.  These  had  long  forgotten 
how  great  a  factor  in  the  stability  of  a  state  is  the 
personal  courage  of  individuals. 

(ii)  Among  the  Teutonic  nations  this  individualism 
showed  itself  in  other  ways.  Individual  initiation  was 
necessary,  but  it  was  subordinated  in  part  to  the  good 
of  the  whole.  In  after  times  this  union  of  the  two  ideas 
was  seen,  among  other  things,  in  the  growth  of  the 
feudal  system ;  but  the  geographical  conditions  of  early 
times  were  favourable  to  the  growth  of  the  attitude  of 
mind  which  desires  a  personal  freedom  like  the  Greek, 
with  orderly  rule  like  the  Roman.  This  individualism 
also  is  evident  in  other  moral  qualities  which  make  for 
advance.  Love  of  the  family,  and  all  the  virtues  which 
spring  from  that  love,  are  much  more  likely  to  be  fostered 
in  the  north  than  in  the  south  of  Europe. 

(iii)  The  invasions  of  the  Asiatic  barbarians,  destructive 
as  they  were,  were  also  not  without  their  effect  in  bringing 
about  a  great  material  advance.  They  gave  a  wider 
outlook  on  the  world.  These  invasions  hammered  into 
the  minds  of  the  Western  nations  the  idea  that  the  world 
was  larger  than  the  Mediterranean  lands.  Travellers 
did  actually  reach  China  and  return  to  tell  the  tale.     The 


INVADING  TRIBES  113 

world  that  mattered  grew  enormously,  and  with  this 
growth  the  amount  of  energy  that  was  available  grew 
also.  Further,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  invading 
tribes,  by  enlarging  the  outlook,  had  a  very  distinct 
effect  in  producing  the  train  of  circumstances  which  led 
to  the  discoveries  of  Columbus  and  his  followers. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE   OASES!    MOHAMMEDANISM 

In  the  last  chapter  we  have  seen  how  the  great  plain 
has  affected  the  course  of  history.     There  is  another 


THE   COMPARATIVE   SIZES   OF  EUROPE   AND   OF   ARABIA. 
The  maps  are  drawn  to  the  same  scale. 

steppeland,  not  so  great  but  still  of  large  size.  This 
also  has  affected  the  course  of  history,  but  because  of 
the  differences  of  the  geographical  conditions  it  has 
affected  history  differently.  Comparatively  little  of  the 
great   plain  is  desert,  while  considerable  stretches  are 

114 


THE  OASES 


115 


somewhat  better  than  steppe.  Arabia,  on  the  other 
hand,  has  great  stretches  of  desert,  and  almost  all  the 
rest  is  steppe. 

Arabia  is  about   1500  miles  in  length,  the  distance 
from  London  to  the  Caucasus  :  it  is  about  half  as  broad. 


Arabia. 

Desert  and  Steppe. 


Dry  steppe  land 
w/tft  oases 


It  is  not  all  desert,  a  great  part  is  dry  steppeland. 
Within  it  are  patches  of  oases  more  or  less  fertile, 
while  in  places  it  gradually  passes  into  utter  desert. 

The  dry  steppe-oases  land  is  the  real  Arabia,  the 
land  of  the  Arabs.  In  consequence  of  the  geographical 
conditions  several  results  follow. 


116      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

As  it  is  a  steppe,  its  peoples  tend  to  be  nomads,  but 

(i)  As  it  is  drier  than  the  steppe  of  Asia,  it  can  support 
fewer  people  even  in  the  same  area. 

(ii)  As  it  has  oases-patches  in  it,  some  of  the  people 
tend  to  become  settled. 

(iii)  There  are,  then,  two  distinct  classes — the  nomads 
and  oases-dwellers  :  the  latter  are  not  anywhere  numer- 
ous enough  to  have  any  effect  by  themselves,  and  the 
power  tends  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  nomads  who 
dominate  the  steppeland  between  oases.  Because  they 
are  even  slightly  dependent  on  certain  oases,  the  steppe- 
dwellers  of  Arabia  are  somewhat  more  tied  to  one  spot 
than  are  pure  nomads.  Small  powers  tend  to  arise  for  a 
time  with  dominion  over  a  few  oases  and  the  intervening 
steppe. 

(iv)  Further,  as  the  steppeland  is  practically  sur- 
rounded by  desert  and  sea,  both  impassable  in  early 
times,  the  inhabitants  of  Arabia  form  a  people  apart, 
on  the  one  hand  protected  from  conquest,  and  on  the 
other  little  able  to  have  any  great  effect  on  outside 
peoples.  They  are  the  less  able  to  interfere  in  external 
affairs,  as  such  steppe  powers  as  arise  are  small  and 
possess  little  cohesion. 

Thus  it  is  not  wonderful  that  while  the  inhabitants 
of  the  great  plain  made  their  influence  felt  continuously 
for  many  centuries,  yet  the  inhabitants  of  Arabia,  near 
as  they  are  to  Egypt  and  Palestine,  Babylonia  and  Greece, 
did  not  till  late  in  historic  time  greatly  affect  the  history 
of  the  world.  Though  there  was  the  same  tendency  to 
spread  over  neighbouring  lands,  yet  the  emigration  was 
fitful  and  by  no  means  so  well  marked. 

But  the  question  now  arises,  "  Why  then  did  the  Arabs 
affect  history  at  all  ?  "    To  answer  this  we  must  consider 


THE  OASES  117 

another  way  in  which  geographical  conditions  act.  We 
have  seen  that  men  may  advance  or  fall  behind  because 
the  geographical  conditions  affecting  their  bodies  react 
on  their  minds.  We  have  seen  that  the  protection 
which  the  desert  afforded  to  the  material  prosperity 
of  the  ancient  Egyptians  and  Babylonians  eventually 
induced  the  state  of  mind  which  trusted  to  protection. 
The  geographical  condition  of  the  Greeks,  with  their 
numbers  of  city  states  independent  of  each  other,  reacted 
on  their  minds  to  make  them  politicians. 

In  the  same  way  the  material  conditions  have  affected 
directly  the  minds  of  the  Arabs.  Passing  slowly  from 
oasis  to  oasis  over  steppe  and  desert,  the  sameness  of 
the  landscape,  where  nothing  attracts  the  eye  for  miles 
together,  has  driven  men  to  meditation.  In  the  presence 
of  the  desert  they  are  insensibly  forced  to  feel  their  own 
impotence  :  oases  may  be  improved ;  they  respond  to 
labour  spent  on  them  in  a  greater  production  :  the 
desert  responds  to  no  labour;  it  cannot  be  subdued. 
Here  man  feels  there  is  a  great  silent  something  greater 
than  the  greatest.  All  circumstances  of  life,  in  varying 
degrees,  force  men  to  see  that  they  are  not  free  to  do  as 
they  wish,  and  all  kinds  of  men' have  their  religion  by 
which  they  attempt  to  explain  more  or  less  vaguely  the 
things  they  do  not  understand  in  the  world  around,  and 
especially  for  what  purpose  they  themselves  are  in  the 
worldj  Most  races  and  tribes  feel  themselves  exposed 
to~~many  influences;  they  have  many  different  things 
to  explain,  many  things  which  have  apparently  no  con- 
nection, and  they  have  in  consequence  many  gods.  On 
the  desert-dwellers,  however,  the  influence  of  the  desert 
is  overwhelming;  even  when  they  recognized  many 
deities  the  almost  universal  tendency  was  to  recognize 


lis      GEO<;i:.\PIIY    AND    WOULD    POWER 

one  supreme  Qod.    Thus  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  tA 

that  from  the  land  of  Arabia  or  from  its  borders  there 
should  have  come  three  of  the  greal  monotheistic  re- 
ligions of  the  world — Judaism,  Christianity  and  Moham- 
medanism— nor  that  the  distinctive  teaching  of  one  of 
them  should  have  been  Bummed  up  in  the  phrases  "  Thou 
shalt  "  and  "  Thou  shalt  not."  They  found  out  that  in 
some  directions  advance  is  not  possible;  they  saw  that 
there  is  some  key  to  the  mystery  of  life ;  they  saw  that 
man's  energies  are  lost  unless  they  are  directed  in  certain 
ways,  and  that  the  mind,  which  directs  the  use  of 
energy,  must  be  educated  to  this  conception  of  life. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  all  men  hold  their 
religion  so  strongly  that  they  desire  to  make  converts ; 
savages  who  reverence  gods  because  they  are  afraid  of 
them  do  not  extend  their  religion.  But  in  proportion 
as  they  see  that  some  things  ought  not  to  be  done  be- 
cause they  are  wrong — because  they  are  in  the  long  run 
a  waste  of  energy,  in  proportion  as  they  see  that  some 
things  ought  to  be  done  because  they  are  right — because 
in  the  long  run  they  save  energy,  in  proportion  as  they 
realize  the  meaning  of  life,  they  desire  to  make  converts, 
to  bring  other  men  to  their  way  of  thinking.  This 
idea  is  scarcely  present  to  the  minds  of  ruder  peoples, 
and  though  we  find  many  wars,  we  find  few  religious 
wars;  the  further  we  advance  in  history,  however,  the 
greater  number  of  religious  wars  and  disputes  do  we 
find.  This  may  seem  a  set  back,  but  it  is  not  so,  for  it 
is  a  record  of  the  fact  that  men  are  recognizing,  however 
vaguely,  that  there  is  a  purpose  in  life,  and  that  that 
which  directs  the  energy  is  of  greater  value  than  the 
energy  itself. 

We  see,  then,  why  the  higher  religions  have  made  many 


MOHAMMEDANISM  1 1 9 

converts  while  the  lower  religions  have  made  few;  in 
particular  we  see  why  the  Arabs,  when  under  the  teach- 
ing of  Mohammed  they  realized  what  they  knew,  should 
have  set  forth  to  convert  the  world. 

We  have  now  seen  why  the  Arabs  are  a  people  apart, 
why  they  came  to  have  a  monotheistic  religion,  and  why 
they  were  thus  marked  out  to  spread  this  religion,  and 
incidentally  but  necessarily  their  own  temporal  power. 
These  are  the  results  of  geographical  conditions.  We 
must  now  notice  precisely  how  far  they  realized  what 
they  attempted. 

Now  the  time  at  which  the  attempt  was  made,  and 
the  conditions  of  the  world  on  which  the  attempt  was 
made  must  be  noticed.  The  Arabs  failed  to  Moham- 
medanize  the  world  partly  because  of  geographical 
momentum,  because  of  conditions  that  had  arisen 
owing  to  the  geography,  partly  because  of  the  natural 
geographical  conditions  which  always  existed.  We 
have  seen  that  Palestine  owed  its  importance  to  its 
situation  between  Egypt  and  Babyloniaj  it  seems, 
then,  to  be  naturally  what  we  might  call  semi-eastern  in 
character.  But  because  it  borders  the  sea — the  Great 
Sea — ever  since  it  has  had  a  history  it  has  looked  west 
as  well  as  east :  in  early  days  Phoenicia  sent  her  mari- 
ners far  westward,  it  came  within  the  circle  of  Greek 
conquests,  its  people  to  a  great  extent  accepted  the 
Greek  language,  and  when  Christianity  came  into  exist- 
ence not  only  were  the  sacred  books  written  in  Greek, 
but  the  land  itself  formed  a  part  of  the  Great  Empire 
of  the  West — Rome. 

It  was  natural,  then,  that  Christianity,  if  it  spread  at 
all,  should  spread  within  the  Roman  Empire,  and  largely 
because  of  the  momentum  carried  by  the  Roman  Empire 


120      GEOGRAPHY    AND    WORLD   POWER 

the  Bishop  of  Rome  became  the  acknowledged  head  of 
the  Church,  rivalled,  indeed,  by  the  Patriarch  of  the 
Eastern  Roman  Empire  at  Constantinople.     Christianity 

of  a  kind  did,  however,  spread  east  and  south — east- 
wards to  Mesopotamia,  Persia,  across  the  plain  even  to 
China,  southwards  to  Abyssinia,  India  and  Ceylon.  In^ 
Abyssinia  and  Malabar  to  this  day  a  kind  of  Christianity 
survives.  But  there  was  a  difference  bet  ween  the  Chris- 
tianity within  the  Roman  Empire  and  that  without. 
The  government  of  the  Church  within  the  Empire  was 
modelled  on  that  of  the  Empire  itself,  and  remained 
powerful  long  after  the  power  of  Rome  was  but  a  name. 
The  Christianity  of  the  lands  which  had  been  part  of  the 
Empire  was  a  homogeneous  whole,  except  in  frontier 
lands  such  as  Syria  and  Egypt,  where  allegiance  to  both 
Church  and  State  was  less  strong.  The  Christianity 
of  the  lands  beyond  the  Empire  was  opposed  to  that 
within ;  it  was  heterodox ;  nor  did  it  ever  gain  a  hold 
on  all  the  members  of  a  tribe  :  it  was  only  a  missionary 
Church,  and  as  a  result  of  this,  as  well  as  owing  to  natural 
differences  of  circumstance  which  transformed  and 
weakened  it  by  divisions,  it  was  altogether  a  frailer 
thing.  Thus  the  lands  which  had  once  been  Roman 
withstood  the  power  of  Mohammedanism;  the  others 
yielded  to  it. 

There  is  another  way  in  which  geographical  mo- 
mentum affected  history  at  this  period.  It  was  prob- 
ably the  existence  of  Christianity  which  in  some  way 
affected  the  mind  of  Mohammed,  so  that  he  realized 
what  life  meant,  and  he  was  impelled  to  start  on  his 
mission.  It  was  merely,  however,  the  match  to  the 
tinder,  not  only  with  the  leader  but  with  his  followers. 
Unless  their  minds  had  been  prepared  by  the  teaching 


MOHAMMEDANISM  121 

of  the  desert  during  long  ages,  they  would  never  have 
accepted  Mohammed's  teachings  as  they  did.  We 
must  notice,  too,  that  Arabia — the  real  Arabia — was  so 
protected  from  outside  influences  that  Christianity  in 
any  but  very  debased  forms  had  never  penetrated  to  it. 
The  Christianity  of  Malabar,  for  example,  has  lasted 
long,  for  though  it  may  have  been  transformed  by  the 
conditions  of  its  new  home,  yet  it  was  superior  to  any 
form  of  religion  in  the  lands  around.  The  new  religion 
founded  by  Mohammed  was  superior  to  all  others  with 
which  it  could  at  first  be  compared. 

Now  we  must  distinguish  between  the  spread  of 
Mohammedanism  and  the  conquests  of  the  Arabs.  The 
lands  which  the  Arabs  conquered  occupied  a  smaller 
area — large  as  it  was — than  did  the  lands  overspread 
by  Mohammedanism.  Mohammedanism — the  desire  of 
spreading  the  knowledge  of  the  one  God,  who  demands 
that  an  account  be  rendered  whether  or  not  life  has  been 
used  for  the  best — Mohammedanism  gave  the  impetus 
to  the  Arabs,  who  went  forth  to  subdue  the  earth.  When 
the  Arabs  reached  the  final  limits  of  their  conquests 
Mohammedanism  still  continued  to  spread,  even  among 
those  who  in  their  turn  conquered  the  Arabs.  What  we 
are  concerned  with  in  the  first  place  is  not  so  much 
the  spread  of  Mohammedanism  as  the  conquests  of  the 
Arabs. 

The  inhabitants  of  Southern  Europe  withstood  Arab 
conquest  because  they  were  Christians  and  were  organ- 
ized to  withstand  the  advance ;  to  the  east  Christianity 
was  not  organized,  and  there  was  little  resistance  to 
Arab  advance.  These  results  followed  from  the  previ- 
ous political  conditions,  from  geographical  momentum. 
South-westwards,   however,  the  Arab    conquests  were 


122     GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

directed  by  a  condition  purely  geographical,  the  exist- 
ence of  the  desert  over  which  no  body  of  men  could 
pass.  It  was  only  along  the  northern  edge  of  Africa 
that  the  Saracens,  as  the  Arabs  came  to  be  called,  were 
able  to  gain  any  political  control. 

East  and  west.  then,  the  Arabs  conquered,  and  the 
process  was  extraordinarily  rapid.  These  lands  are 
steppe,  drier  or  moister,  and  allow  of  movement  such 
as  that  to  which  the  Arab  has  been  bred.  Depending 
for  food  only  on  the  animals  which  carry  him  and 
his  baggage,  accustomed  to  the  sameness  of  the  steppe, 
where  one  home  is  as  good  as  another,  the  Arab  has  no 
ties  and  he  can  move  fast.  The  lands  he  first  overran 
were  just  those  which  geography  and  past  history  seemed 
to  determine. 

Turn  now  to  the  historical  facts.  In  the  first  thirty 
years  of  the  seventh  century  Arabia  was  united  under 
Mohammed.  In  the  next  twenty  years  the  Saracens 
conquered  and  converted  to  Islam,  Egypt,  Syria,  Meso- 
potamia, Persia.  Turan  and  even  a  small  part  of  India. 
Then  there  was  a  check.  Unlike  Syria,  Asia  Minor  had 
been  thoroughly  Christianized  and  brought  under  the 
control  of  the  Eastern  Empire,  so  that  the  Saracenic 
dominion  was  never  able  to  obtain  a  permanent  footing 
north-westwards  of  the  Taurus.  Further,  the  Arabs 
were  essentially  land  men,  and  attack  on  the  states  along 
the  north  of  Africa  and  beyond  was  difficult  by  land, 
especially  as  the  Eastern  Empire  still  had  a  fleet  to  give 
some  assistance  to  its  distant  colonies.  The  Saracens, 
however,  now  controlled  the  old  nursery  of  seafaring 
men  in  Phoenicia  and  Egypt,  and  after  the  lapse  of 
another  fifty  years,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth 
century,  by  the  help  of  naval  expeditions  the  northern 


MOHAMMEDANISM  123 

coast  of  Africa  was  added  to  the  lands  under  the  power 
of  the  successor  of  Mohammed.  The  Saracens  even 
crossed  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  within  a  few  years 
conquered  the  whole  of  Spain — the  land  farthest  from 
centralized  Roman  rule — except,  and  the  exception  is 
important,  parts  of  the  mountainous  north-west  in 
which  the  Christians  still  held  out. 

This  dominion  was  set  up  in  little  more  than  a  century. 
Arabia  was  the  cradle  of  the  dominion,  but  like  other 
cradles  it  was  not  suitable  for  later  conditions  of  the 
power  that  had  arisen.  Damascus  and  Bagdad  were 
chosen  in  succession  as  centres  of  rule.  Now,  partly 
because  of  the  existence  of  Christian  states  to  the 
north,  partly  because  of  the  existence  of  the  Sahara 
to  the  south,  this  dominion  was  long  and  narrow  :  all 
long  and  narrow  states  are  difficult  to  govern  from  one 
centre.  It  was  so  with  Egypt  and  the  Roman  Empire. 
The  difficulty  is  increased  if  the  seat  of  rule  is  not  cen- 
trally placed.  It  was  natural,  then,  that  this  dominion 
of  the  Saracens  should  divide  into  two  parts,  each  under 
a  Caliph  who  claimed  to  be  the  legitimate  successor  of 
Mohammed  and  ruler  of  all  the  Saracen  lands.  This 
took  place  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  when 
Spain  formally  separated  from  the  rest.  About  the 
same  time,  and  for  the  same  reason,  Barbary,  the  western 
half  of  the  northern  shore  of  Africa,  also  separated  by 
long  distance  from  the  centre  of  rule,  acquired  a  virtual 
independence,  though  still  remaining  Mohammedan  in 
religion.  Less  than  a  century  and  a  half  later  Arabia, 
with  the  remainder  of  the  African  dominions,  became 
independent  and  formed  a  third  Caliphate,  which 
nominally  for  a  time  embraced  the  states  of  Barbary 
also.     These  four  divisions,  Spain,  Barbary,  Egypt  and 


124      GEOGRAPHY    AND    WOULD   POWER 

tlir  remainder  of  the  Eastern  Caliphate,  thus  came  to 
have  separate  histories,  bound  together  not  so  much 
even  by  the  fact  that  they  had  been  Saracen  conquests 
as  that  they  were  of  one  belief.  Even  their  Saracen 
conquerors  had  not  all  been  of  the  same  race,  but 
consisted  of  many  who  had  been  swept  up  into  the 
advancing  hosts  by  previous  conquests.  The  natural 
differences  of  geographical  conditions  intensified  the 
contrasts  and  induced  enmities  which  identity  of  religion 
could  not  heal. 

In  Spain  the  Western  Caliphate  remained  strong  till 
the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  then  divided 
into  numerous  petty  kingdoms,  which  continuously 
lost  ground  before  the  advance  of  the  Christian  states 
of  the  north  till,  finally,  only  the  kingdom  of  Granada 
remained  in  the  mountains  of  the  south.  Even  this  at 
last  was  conquered  by  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  the  Peninsula  came  wholly  under  Christian  rule. 

In  the  Eastern  Caliphate  the  Saracen  rulers  in  the 
enervating  lowlands  of  Bagdad  exercised  control  over 
the  very  varied  lands  nominally  under  their  rule  only 
till  about  a.d.  800,  when  they  were  forced  more  and  more 
to  rely  on  mercenary  bands  of  Turks' to  hold  together 
lands  continually  in  revolt.  The  temporal  power  passed 
naturally,  then,  from  the  hands  of  the  Saracens  to  those 
of  the  Turks,  and  though  it  was  not  till  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century  that  the  Saracen  Caliphate  at 
Bagdad  was  totally  destroyed  by  the  Mongols,  yet  the 
real  control  was  exercised  more  and  more  by  Turkish 
viceroys  under  different  names,  and  independent  Turkish 
powers  were  set  up  on  the  Iran  plateau.  Now  we  have 
seen  that  these  Turks  came  originally  from  the  plain. 
They  were   heathen  :    at  most   heterodox  Christianity 


MOHAMMEDANISM  125 

had  been  preached  to  them.  Coming  into  contact  with 
Mohammedanism  they  embraced  that  religion.  Thus 
the  destruction  of  the  Saracen  rule  was  no  destruction 
of  the  Mohammedan  power,  rather  an  extension,  for 
Asia  Minor,  which  had  never  been  Saracen,  became 
gradually  Turkish  and  Mohammedan,  and  the  Turkish 
powers  who  descended  into  India  set  up  more  per- 
manent Mohammedan  states  there  than  the  Saracens 
had  ever  done. 

The  Mohammedan  lands  of  Northern  Africa  and 
Arabia,  after  the  Mediterranean  ceased  to  be  a  Roman 
lake,  remained  for  long  shut  off  from  contact  with 
Christian  nations.  They  were  not  strong  enough  to 
extend  temporal  power  across  the  Sahara,  but  the 
religion  of  Mohammed,  the  religion  of  the  desert- 
dweller,  gradually  spread  from  steppe  to  steppe  and 
from  oasis  to  oasis,  till  the  natural  difficulty  of  crossing 
the  great  barrier  of  the  Sahara,  increased  by  the  presence 
of  hostile  tribes,  was  for  Christian  nations  yet  further 
augmented  because  these  hostile  tribes  upheld  a  hostile 
religion. 

The  function  of  the  Mediterranean  has  thus  undergone 
a  change.  In  early  times  it  had  been  a  barrier ;  later, 
it  became  under  the  Phoenicians  a  highway,  and  to 
the  Greeks  a  defence.  We  find  that  the  Romans  made 
it  a  base  for  sea-power  and  subdued  all  the  lands  on  its 
margin.  With  the  weakening  of  Rome  came  a  weaken- 
ing of  sea-power.  The  Barbary  States  and  Spain  became 
Saracen  only  because  the  naval  power  of  the  Eastern 
Empire  was  not  strong  enough  to  hold  the  whole  sea, 
but  neither  was  the  Saracen  able  to  gain  supreme 
control.  Thus  the  conditions  were  the  same  as  in  the 
earlier  days  of  conflict  between  Rome  and  Carthage  : 


126      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

the  Mediterranean  became  a  moat  separating  the  rivals, 
though  first  one  and  then  the  other  had  Bomewhal  more 

control.  The  islands  became  alternately  Saracen  and 
Christian.  Crete  and  Sicily  were  held  by  the  Saracens 
for  centuries  before  they  were  regained  by  a  Christian 
power. 

In  the  Persian  Gulf  and  Indian  Ocean  new  conditions 
arose.  Here  the  Arab  naval  power  had  no  competitor 
of  any  kind,  and  the  extent  of  their  earlier  rule — stretch- 
ing from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  by  the  Mediterranean, 
the  Persian  Gulf,  and  Red  Sea  and  Indian  Ocean  to 
India,  and  holding  the  keys  of  the  ways  between  East 
and  West  by  sea  and  land — could  not  fail  to  induce  the 
Arabs  to  become  traders  of  a  kind,  so  that  Ceylon,  though 
it  never  came  under  Saracen  rule,  was  yet  a  centre  of 
Arab  trade  in  the  eighth  century. 

The  disruption  of  Saracen  power,  the  division  of  the 
Caliphates  and  the  practical  independence  of  Arabia, 
Egypt  and  Barbary  did  not  for  a  long  time  affect  Arab 
trade.  It  was  only  when  the  Western  Caliphate  became 
weaker  in  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  that  the 
new  city  states  of  Genoa,  Pisa  and  Venice,  which  had 
risen  on  the  ruins  of  the  Empire,  began  to  seize  both 
the  sea-trade  and  the  naval  power  which  till  then  had 
been  in  the  hands  of  the  Saracens.  Their  supremacy 
allowed  of  the  dispatch  by  sea  of  expeditions  of  Chris- 
tians on  crusades  to  attack  the  Mohammedan  power  in 
Palestine  itself  when  the  rule  of  the  Saracens  was  re- 
placed by  the  more  severe  regime  of  the  Turk.  Even 
then,  however,  the  Moors  of  Algiers  and  Morocco  con- 
tinued in  some  degree  the  control  of  the  western  Medi- 
terranean, and  retained  it  as  corsairs  and  pirates  for 
many  centuries ;  and  more  important  still,  there  was,  for 


MOHAMMEDANISM  127 

an  even  longer  time,  no  rival  to  Arab  trade  in  the  Indian 
Ocean,  largely  because  there  was  a  land  barrier  between 
east  and  west;  indeed  it  is  only  in  our  own  days  that 
the  destruction  of  that  barrier  has  led  to  the  collapse  of 
Arab  trade. 

Thus  we  see  the  influence  of  the  desert  on  history. 
The  great  belt  of  the  Sahara  and  Arabia  stretching  into 
Asia  and  existing  because  of  natural  climatic  conditions, 
has  been  and  is  the  source  and  strength  of  Mohammed- 
anism. An  advance  in  the  use  of  energy  has  taken  place, 
because  as  a  result  of  Saracen  conquest  the  same  power 
had  control  of  the  Mediterranean  and  Indian  Ocean,  and 
the  men  of  the  West  were  familiarized  with  the  ways  to 
the  East  by  sea  as  they  had  been  with  a  way  to  the  East 
by  land  when  invasions  took  place  from  the  plain  :  more 
energy  became  available.  This  result  followed  from 
the  situation  of  the  desert  with  reference  to  that  of 
the  diagonal  water  channel  across  the  great  land  mass 
of  Euro- Asia- Africa.  Because  the  desert  belt  inter- 
sected the  channel,  and  because  the  land  and  not  the 
water  was  continuous,  the  naval  power  belonged  to  the 
Arabs.  Further,  the  desert  reacted  on  the  minds  of 
men  exposed  to  its  influence  during  many  ages,  and 
through  them  has  affected  others  not  so  exposed.  These 
had  all  been  stimulated  to  think,  on  a  larger  scale  than 
had  been  possible  previously,  as  to  the  reasons  of  things, 
and  in  turn  the  later  developments  of  history  were 
made  possible. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE   OCEAN :     THE    DISCOVERY  \     IBERIA 

The  shape  of  the  earth  has  always  been  of  importance 
in  history,  because  the  distribution  of  heat  and  cold, 
rain  and  drought,  forest  and  grassland,  depends  funda- 
mentally on  the  way  in  which  the  earth  rotates  on  its 
axis,  and  on  its  attitude  with  reference  to  the  sun. 
We  have  now  reached  a  stage  when  the  shape  of  the 
earth  is  important  in  another  way. 

Hitherto  it  had  seemed  to  man  as  if  it  did  not  matter 

whether  the  world  was  flat  or  not,  and  for  nearly  all 

people  it  was  flat.     Learned  men,  however,  knew  that 

the  world  was  a  globe.      Eratosthenes  of  Alexandria 

had  even  calculated  its  size,  of  which  he  had  a  more 

accurate   idea  than   had   Columbus.     The   calculation 

was  possible,  since  the  distance  from  Syene  or  Aswan 

to  Alexandria   was    very    accurately    known,  because 

Egypt,  with  its  valuable  land  annually  flooded,  required 

to  be  carefully  surveyed.     In  the  time  of  Eratosthenes, 

however,  the  shape  of  the  earth  did  not  affect  history 

directly.      It   was   a  scientific   fact   the   knowledge  of 

which  had  no  practical  bearing  on  the  lives  of  men. 

When  men  were  able  to  use  for  their  own  advantage 

the   knowledge  of  the  fact  that  the  earth  was  round, 

then  the  shape  of  the  earth  began  to  control  history 

in  another  way. 

128 


THE  DISCOVERY  129 

But  the  discovery  of  the  shape  of  the  globe  was  of 
importance,  because  the  discovery  of  its  shape  was 
related  to  other  facts.  The  power  of  the  Arabs,  as  we 
have  seen,  depended  partly  on  the  control  of  the  sea 
which  they  possessed.  The  Roman  Empire,  also,  owed 
its  importance  to  the  same  fact.  The  power  of  the 
Phoenicians  and  Greeks  was  based  almost  entirely  on  a 
knowledge  of  seamanship.  The  Mediterranean  Sea  was 
the  source  of  most  of  this  activity,  but  ships  did  sail 
round  other  coasts.  Phoenician  ships  may  have  sailed 
towards  India.  Arab  merchants  certainly  reached 
China.  Agricola  sailed  round  Scotland.  The  Vikings 
crossed  the  sea  to  our  islands  and  Iceland,  and  prob- 
ably even  to  Greenland,  and  in  early  mediaeval  times 
formed  more  or  less  permanent  settlements  on  all  the 
western  shores  of  Europe. 

The  effect  which  the  discovery  of  the  sea  has  had  on 
world-history  is  enormous.  The  ease  of  movement  on 
water  as  compared  with  that  on  land  has  been  already 
spoken  of,  but  there  were  limitations  to  the  extent  of 
this  movement.  Because  of  the  terrors  of  the  unknown 
the  early  navigators  confined  their  attention  to  the 
inland  seas  and  coasting  traffic  on  the  margins  of  the 
ocean.  The  most  important  sea  was  the  sea  set  in  the 
midst  of  the  land.  Thus  the  distribution  of  land  has  had 
a  controlling  effect.  Owing  to  the  limitation  of  man's 
knowledge,  till  400  years  ago  there  was  one  land  and 
many  seas.  The  great  land  mass  of  Euro-Asia-Africa 
extends  so  far  to  the  north  that  there  is  no  ice-free 
passage  along  its  northern  edge.  Africa  extends  so  far 
to  the  south  that  men  had  been  afraid  to  venture, 
though  many  ancient  geographers  believed  that  Africa 
could  be  circumnavigated.     There  was,  indeed,  an  idea 

K 


130      GEOGRAPHY    AND    WORLD   POWER 

that  the  world  was  a  land  mass  surrounded  by  a  "  stream 
of  ocean,"  but  there  was  no  suggestion  that  there  might 
be  other  great  lands  set  in  that  ocean,  and  for  all  practical 
purposes  there  were  two  oceans  separated  by  a  mass  of 
land. 

The  achievements  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century 
were  not  simply  that  a  seaway  was  found  to  the  Indies, 
that  America  was  discovered,  and  that  Magellan  sailed 
round  Cape  Horn.  By  the  voyages  of  Vasco  da  Gama 
and  Magellan  the  oceans  were  found  to  be  connected, 
and  Columbus  and  Magellan  discovered  that  the  oceans 
could  be  safely  crossed.  The  shape  of  the  world  and  the 
oneness  of  the  ocean  were  discovered.  Henceforward 
coasting  traffic  becomes  subsidiary  to  ocean  transport, 
and  politically  sea-power  gives  place  to  ocean-power.  Of 
the  results  of  these  discoveries  some  were  immediate  and 
some  are  beginning  to  be  felt  only  at  the  present  time. 

Now  we  must  notice  why  it  was  that  the  shape  of 
the  globe  and  the  existence  of  the  one  ocean  began  to 
control  the  course  of  history.  We  have  seen  how  gradu- 
ally the  world  had  been  growing  larger ;  more  and  more 
lands  and  seas  had  been  brought  to  man's  knowledge, 
and  the  special  products  of  different  lands  had  been 
used  all  the  world  over.  The  invasions  of  the  tribes  did 
much  to  extend  ideas  of  what  the  world  was,  while  the 
Arabs  did  much  to  spread  knowledge  of  the  Eastern 
seas.  Both  these  advances  in  knowledge  stimulated 
the  minds  of  men,  but  the  knowledge  that  the  East 
could  be  reached  partly  by  sea  had  a  greater  direct  effect 
on  the  course  of  history  just  because  movement  is  easier 
by  water  than  by  land.  Marco  Polo  made  his  memorable 
journey  to  the  East  by  land,  but  he  returned  as  far  as 
he  could  by  sea. 


THE  DISCOVERY  131 

It  has  to  be  remembered  that  the  temporal  power 
of  the  Arabs — of  the  Moslems  generally — depended  not 
on  the  use  of  great  military  power,  but  on  controlling 
a  vast  trade  area.  This  control  was  possible  because 
the  land  was  continuous  and  the  sea  for  all  practical 
purposes  was  not;  it  was  effective  because  the  Arabs 
occupied  that  land  which  must  always  have  extra- 
ordinary significance,  lying  as  it  does  between  the 
Mediterranean  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Persian  Gulf 
and  the  Red  Sea  on  the  other.  The  Arabs  had  in  fact 
the  whole  carrying  trade  that  had  belonged  to  Romans, 
Assyrians,  Persians,  the  people  of  Central  Asia  as  well 
as  those  of  North-East  Africa.  This  trade  cannot  have 
been  great  in  amount  compared  with  trade  of  the 
present  time,  because  transport  then  was  so  much 
more  difficult  than  now,  but  they  had  in  their  hands 
the  trade  of  the  world  such  as  it  was.  The  idea  of 
trade  had  also  been  steadily  extending.  Men  were 
beginning  to  depend  on  the  results  of  trade.  It  was 
being  found  more  and  more  profitable  to  exchange 
commodities  produced  in  one  area  for  those  produced 
in  another;  that  is,  it  was  found  that  on  the  whole 
there  was  a  saving  of  energy  in  using  up  some  energy 
in  carrying  the  productions  of  one  land  to  another, 
rather  than  in  producing  all  that  was  required  in  one 
place,  even  if  that  were  possible.  In  particular,  men 
were  becoming  accustomed  to  the  idea  that  there  was 
a  way  to  the  Indies  almost  entirely  by  water. 

Further,  the  Roman  Empire  had  been  civilized.  The 
chief  men  and  their  immediate  dependents  had  grown 
accustomed  to  luxury,  to  the  control  for  their  own  use 
of  a  superabundance  of  energy,  to  the  accumulation  of 
more  energy  than  they  could  assimilate.     Though  Rome 


O  over 3m ># 


Venice  is  set  far  inland,  with  the  plain  of  Lombardy 
behind  it,  having  access  to  the  northern  lowlands  by 
ways  round  and  across  the  Alps. 


■ 


) fP  i^BiJCy'-^ 


The  lowest  pass  over  tho  Alps,  The  Brenner  (at  B). 
gives  access  to  Venice. 


THE   P08IT10N    OF   VENICE. 


132 


THE   DISCOVERY  133 

fell  politically  there  still  remained  cities  in  Italy  where 
such  men  lived  accustomed  to  luxury,  i.  e.  to  a  variety 
of  foods,  clothing  and  house  furnishings  which  could 
not  be  supplied  in  Italy  itself.  All  these  were  brought 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth  by  Arab  trade. 

Also  Europe  generally  had  been  advancing  in  civiliza- 
tion. States  had  been  gradually  appearing  out  of  the 
ruins  of  the  Roman  Empire,  buffeted  into  shape  directly 
or  indirectly  by  the  menaces  of  the  nomads  from  the 
east,  the  Arabs  on  the  south,  and  the  hardy  seamen 
of  the  northern  peninsulas.  The  standard  of  living  of 
these  new  states  had  been  gradually  rising.  The  salt 
meat  consumed  in  winter,  when  the  production  of  the 
land  ceased,  was  found  to  be  more  palatable  if  seasoned 
with  spices,  especially  pepper;  the  energy  of  food  was 
more  easily  made  available  by  increasing  the  appetite 
and  digestive  powers.  Hence  the  trade  in  spices  came 
to  be  of  importance.  This  trade  also  was  in  the  hands 
of  the  Arabs.  Thus  all  the  commodities  carried  were 
valuable  in  proportion  to  their  bulk ;  they  could  "  stand  " 
transport  not  only  by  water  but  by  land,  and  by  land 
on  camel  or  on  horse,  and  the  profits  of  the  valuable 
trade  were  largely  made  by  the  Arabs. 

But  the  Arabs  had  not  conquered  Europe,  and  there 
grew  up  in  Europe  in  favourable  spots  trading  towns 
which  had  enormous  power.  These  favourable  spots 
were  naturally  in  Northern  Italy,  where  luxuries  were 
consumed  and  where  there  was  easiest  access  to  the 
northern  lands  of  Europe.  Venice  in  its  sandy  lagoons 
enjoyed  protection  from  land  and  sea  and  had  an  enor- 
mous trade  for  many  years,  but  Genoa  and  Pisa  were 
also  important  trading-town  republics.  The  great  popu- 
lations in  Northern  Italy  "  required  bulky  goods  from 


134      GEOGRAPHY  AND    WORLD   POWER 

close  at  hand,  and  so,  because  the  ships  were  carrying 
Lr""'ls.  in  any  case,  to  them,  through  Genoa  and  Venice 
came  a  greater  proportion  of  the  valuable  goods  of  the 
Bast  than  was  brought  to  other  parts."  Thus  these 
towns  grew  into  still  more  important  ports  because 
such  a  trade,  though  small  in  amount,  puts  great  profits 
into  the  hands  of  those  who  carry  it  on  with  success. 

But  as  only  valuable  commodities  could  be  brought 
from  the  Indies,  men  naturally  thought  that  the  Indies 
were  rich  lands,  and  as  time  went  on  there  sprang  up 
a  desire  on  the  part  of  Western  nations  to  reach  these 
new  lands  for  themselves  in  order  to  bring  home  "riches " 
that  had  not  first  had  to  pay  toll  to  the  Arabs. 

It  is  to  be  noticed  now  what  lands  border  on  the 
ocean.  To  give  them  their  modern  political  names 
these  are  Portugal,  Spain,  France,  the  Netherlands, 
Germany,  Denmark,  Norway  and  Britain.  These  had 
all  directly  or  indirectly  received  the  impetus  towards 
civilization  from  the  centres  on  the  Mediterranean,  but 
till  the  discovery  of  the  ocean  they  were  on  the  outer 
fringe  of  the  world.  Though  the  Roman  Empire  fell, 
the  centre  of  interest  was  still  in  the  Mediterranean, 
routes  converged  on  the  Mediterranean  and  on  the  east 
end  of  it,  and  trade  had  there  its  greatest  volume. 

At  first  sight  it  would  seem  that  any  one  of  these 
lands  might  have  discovered  the  ocean.  In  a  sense  the 
Norwegians  had  discovered  it.  The  poverty  of  their 
soil  almost  compels  men  to  eke  out  existence  by  fishing. 
The  Inner  Lead,  protected  by  the  rampart  of  islands, 
forms  a  "  Great  North  Road  "  of  which  the  innumerable 
fiords  are  byways.  There  is  a  nursery  of  hardy  seamen 
here,  and  it  is  no  wonder  that  men  had  gone  out  west- 
wards across  the  ocean  as  well  as  southwards  along  the 


THE  DISCOVERY 


135 


coasts,  where  they  had  settled  as  crofters  and  fishers 
wherever  they  could  find  a  foothold.  The  Danes  and 
Saxons   were   less   naturally   sailors,   and   crossed   the 


THE  COAST  ROAD  OF  NORWAY. 

The  "  Inner  Lead  "  is  the  island-protected  channel  along  which 
boats  may  sail.  It  forms  the  Great  North  Road  of  Norway.  Bergen 
is  on  this  main  road,  between  the  great  side  roads  of  the  Sogne  and 
Hardanger  Fiords. 

North  Sea  rather  because  of  force  from  behind — the 
pressure  of  the  nomads  from  the  East — than  because  of 
any  natural  liking  for  the  sea.  A  sea-empire  was  for 
a  moment,  under  Sweyn  and  Cnut,  based  on  the  North 


136      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   ROWER 

Sea,  but  this  Led  to  no  discovery  of  the  oneness  of  the 
ocean.  It  was  hut  an  empire  of  the  same  kind  as  the 
early  Roman  based  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea;  in  this 
northern  empire  there  were  Eewer  people  and  less  natur- 
ally available  energy,  and  it  lasted  only  a  short  time. 
Even  the  Norsemen's  discovery  of  America  had  no 
effect  on  the  course  of  history.  It  was  merely  another 
land  farther  removed  from  the  world,  cold  and  provid- 
ing little  energy.  Neither  then  nor  later  was  there  any 
very  great  interest  in  the  question  whether  there  was 
one  ocean  or  two,  for  it  did  not  affect  the  daily  life  of 
the  people. 

On  the  shores  of  the  other  lands  bordering  the  ocean, 
there  were  fishermen  and  sailors  of  small  coasting  vessels 
which  entered  the  many  estuaries  cut  into  the  land,  but 
there  was  no  connection  by  sea  with  the  mass  of  world 
traffic.  The  Arabs  held  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar,  and 
traffic  was  all  local. 

In  view  of  the  geographical  facts,  then,  it  was  most 
natural  that  the  discovery  of  the  ocean  should  fall 
to  Iberia,  and  that  Iberia  should  be  the  first  to  profit 
by  that  discovery.  We  have  seen  that  nearly  all  the 
peninsula  had  been  overrun  by  the  Mohammedans ;  by 
the  time  they  reached  the  West,  however,  the  first 
fervour  of  slaughter  had  died  out,  and  the  lives  of  the 
original  inhabitants  were  spared :  they  were  suffered  to 
live,  though  in  subjection. 

In  the  North,  in  the  forest  fastnesses  of  the  Pyrenees 
and  Cantabrian  Mountains,  where  the  Arab  horsemen 
could  not  easily  follow,  an  unconquered  few  were  left, 
who  remained  not  only  free  but  Christian.  In  the 
Cantabrian  Mountains  arose  the  small  state  of  Leon, 
and  in  the  secluded  valleys  of  the  Pyrenees  the  state  of 


THE  DISCOVERY  137 

Navarre  took  its  rise.  These  gradually  made  headway 
against  the  Mohammedans,  and  recovered  and  re-chris- 
tianized the  land.  As  each  gained  in  importance,  the 
natural  differences  between  lowlander  and  high  lander 
asserted  themselves.  The  lowlands  on  the  west  of  Leon 
made  themselves  independent  and  formed  the  nucleus 
of  Portugal.  From  the  extended  Navarre  there  split 
off  the  valley  of  the  Ebro  on  the  east  to  form  the  state 
of  Aragon,  and  the  plateau  on  the  west  to  form  the  state 
of  Castile,  leaving  but  a  remnant  in  the  mountainous 
north  to  be  still  called  Navarre.  Later  Castile  and  Leon 
united  to  form  a  larger  Castile,  so  that  by  the  fourteenth 
century  there  were  three  great  Christian  states  in 
Iberia,  Castile  alone  being  still  in  touch  with  the  sole 
surviving  Mohammedan  state  of  Granada. 

Portugal  had  finished  her  work  of  expelling  the  Moor, 
but  just  because  Portugal  had  come  into  being  as  a 
Christian  state  fighting  against  the  infidel  Moor,  the 
tendency  was  to  continue  in  the  course  which  had 
brought  the  state  into  existence.  Because  the  people 
were  Christians  and  were  accustomed  to  fighting  for 
their  faith  against  the  Moors,  it  seemed  natural  to 
continue  to  fight  as  Christians  against  the  Moors  even 
though  this  involved  crossing  the  sea  to  Africa.  Hence 
by  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  there  was  a 
province  of  "  Algarve  beyond  the  sea"  on  the  shores  of 
Africa,  and  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  discovery  of  the 
Ocean. 

The  discovery  of  the  Ocean  was  probably  hastened 
by  the  sagacity  of  one  man;  but  as  might  have  been 
expected  that  man  was  a  Portuguese,  and  his  action 
only  hastened  the  natural  course  of  events.  Prince 
Henry  the  Navigator  grew  up  having  ever  before  him 


138 


IBERIA  139 

the  power  of  the  Arabs  as  traders;  on  the  rocky 
promontory  of  Sagres,  beside  Cape  St.  Vincent,  Prince 
Henry  in  1418  built  an  observatory,  and  in  the  following 
years  sent  out  ship  after  ship  southward  along  the 
coast  of  Africa,  with  the  express  purpose  of  fostering 
exploration  for  the  discovery  of  a  sea  way  to  the 
Indies. 

At  first  progress  was  slow.  Beyond  Morocco,  the 
land  of  the  Moors,  stretched  the  vast  Sahara  desert 
extending  to  the  verge  of  the  ocean.  There  the  steady 
trade  winds,  blowing  to  the  south-west,  have  parted 
with  their  moisture  and  drop  no  rain  on  which  vegeta- 
tion might  live.  Further,  from  Morocco  the  coast  of 
Africa  trends  south-west,  and  these  same  trade  winds 
blow  so  steadily  that  mariners  from  Europe  were  afraid 
to  sail  before  them  as  there  would  be  no  winds  to  bring 
them  back.  Cape  Non  seemed  to  say  "  No  "  to  the 
farther  advance  of  such  daring  sailors  as  ventured  so 
far.  Thus  there  were  good  reasons  why  Africa  had 
never  been  rounded  from  the  west.  But  encouragement 
from  Prince  Henry  and  the  desire  to  share  in  the  wealth 
of  the  Indies  combined  to  bring  about  an  advance,  and 
in  1447  the  object  of  the  exploration  was  published 
abroad,  so  that  all  good  Christians  might  know,  by  a 
grant  being  made  by  the  Pope  to  the  Crown  of  Portugal 
of  all  lands  then  or  at  any  future  time  to  be  discovered 
between  Cape  Non  and  India.  It  is  interesting  to  think 
how  much  historical  momentum  that  grant  represents, 
the  history,  as  we  have  seen,  being  controlled  by  the 
geographical  conditions. 

Prince  Henry  did  not  himself  live  to  see  the  success 
of  his  schemes,  but  within  eighty  years  of  the  occupa- 
tion of  Sagres,  Portuguese  sailors  had  won  their  way 


110      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

southwards  along  the  coast  of  Africa,  Diaz  had  doubled 
the  Cape,  and  Vasco  da  Grama  had  sailed  to  India  and 
returned  with  bags  of  spices  to  show  that  he  had  been 
there.  Henceforward  in  history  there  were  not  two 
oceans  but  one,  and  henceforward  world  trade  fell  to 
the  ocean  sailors,  because  there  was  a  saving  of  energy 
in  carrying  goods  all  the  way  by  sea.  Another  great 
advance  in  civilization  was  thus  made.  Less  than  five 
years  after  da  Gama  returned  from  India  the  galleys 
from  Alexandria  and  Beirut,  which  were  wont  to  bring 
the  spices,  entered  the  harbour  of  Venice  empty.  Within 
a  dozen  years  of  his  return,  the  conquest  of  the  Indies — 
the  East  Indies — was  complete,  the  Arabs  were  defeated 
in  the  Arabian  Sea  and  in  Malacca,  and  the  power  of 
the  Portuguese  was  established  all  along  the  coast  of 
India. 

Thanks  to  her  position  and  to  Prince  Henry,  Portugal 
had  taken  the  lead  in  discovery.  Thanks  to  the  fact 
that  the  Iberian  peoples  were  Christians  and  zealous 
Roman  Catholics,  the  bull  of  the  Pope  granting  a 
monopoly  of  her  discoveries  to  Portugal  was  not  likely 
to  be  disregarded  by  her  rival  Castile ;  but  interest  was 
roused  in  the  advance  southwards,  especially  when  the 
Guinea  coast  had  been  reached  and  its  products  actually 
brought  to  Europe. 

Then,  and  not  till  then,  the  fact  that  the  world  is  round 
became  of  importance.  If  the  world  was  round  there 
was  another  way  to  the  Indies — westward.  This  way 
lay  open  to  whoever  would  take  it.  As  Iberia  lies  at 
the  west  end  of  the  Mediterranean,  round  which  lived 
all  the  sailors  who  till  now  had  been  engaged  in  world 
commerce,  it  was  most  natural  that  many  Genoese, 
Venetians  and  Pisan  sailors  should  find  employment 


IBERIA  141 

under  Portuguese  authority  when  Portugal  embarked  on 
a  career  of  world  conquest  overseas,  especially  as  there 
had  been  little  reason  in  earlier  times  why  Portuguese 
should  be  sailors.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Columbus — a 
Genoese,  familiar  with  trade  conditions,  a  resident  for 
many  years  in  Portugal,  where  ideas  of  world  trade  were 
in  the  air,  a  sailor  on  the  open  sea  to  Madeira,  the 
Azores  and  even  to  Iceland,  familiar  with  the  theories 
as  to  the  shape  of  the  globe — should  have  thought  it 
worth  while  to  make  a  voyage  westward. 

But  Portugal  was  not  interested  :  all  her  energies 
were  engaged  in  the  exploration  of  the  obvious  way 
eastward.  The  Italian  states  wished  rather  to  keep  the 
Mediterranean  as  part  of  the  route  to  the  East  than  to 
open  any  new  route.  Britain  had  not  yet  realized  what 
world  trade  meant.  It  was  in  Castile  that  Columbus 
found  a  certain  sympathy  with  his  ideas,  though  it  is 
not  to  be  wondered  at  that  it  took  him  many  years 
to  break  down  that  distrust  of  the  open  ocean  which 
had  possessed  the  minds  of  men  through  all  time.  As 
in  the  case  of  Prince  Henry,  though  the  great  work  was 
done  by  a  single  man,  yet  it  would  probably  have  been 
done  within  a  comparatively  short  time  by  someone 
else  if  not  by  him,  and  he  was  just  such  a  man  as  the 
geographical  conditions  were  likely  to  produce. 

That  the  discovery  of  Columbus  was  rated  at  its  true 
value  by  the  Powers  of  Europe  is  seen  by  the  fact  that 
within  seven  weeks  of  the  return  of  Columbus,  in  1493, 
a  bull  was  issued  by  the  Pope,  assuming  that  the  world 
was  round  and  giving  the  Western  Hemisphere  to  Spain 
as  the  East  was  given  to  Portugal.  Now  these  lands, 
which  Columbus  had  discovered  in  his  attempt  to  reach 
the  Indies,  had  not  belonged  to  the  circle  of  lands  that 


142      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

1 1 1 . ■  1 1  mattered.  The  Portuguese  in  the  Indies  had 
merely  diverted  to  their  own  Bhipe  such  trade  as  had 
already  used  the  shins  of  the  Arabs.  In  the  New  World 
there  was  no  trade  to  divert;  there  were  no  spices.  The 
Spaniards  who  followed  Columbus  in  ever-increasing 
numbers  came  with  the  three  ideas,  fighting,  Christian- 


THE   VOYAGES   OF   COLUMBUS. 

The  return  voyages  arc  not  shown.     The  direction  of  the  trade  winds  determin 
t  he  route  of  each  of  the  voyages. 

izing,  and  the  possession  of  gold  and  silver.  Trade  did 
not  enter  their  minds.  Again  this  is  not  surprising. 
Castilians  had  for  centuries  been  accustomed  to  fighting, 
to  fighting  for  Christianity,  and  their  own  plateau  land 
yielded  precious  metals  and  was  unsuited  for  trade. 

But  though  the  Western  Hemisphere  was  given  to 
Spain,  the  Spaniards  did  not  conquer  the  whole  of  the 


IBERIA  143 

lands  set  therein.  The  parts  which  came  under  their 
influence  were  determined  by  geographical  conditions. 
A  map  showing  the  winds  in  the  Atlantic  will  show  that 
the  trade  winds  still  blow  south-westwards,  so  that 
Columbus  did  not  go  due  west  across  the  Atlantic  but 
west-south-west,  with  the  result  that  he  reached  the 
islands  now  called  the  West  Indies.  In  later  voyages 
he  reached  South  America  and  Central  America.  Because 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama  is  narrow  he  heard  of  the  exist- 
ence of  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  within  a  few  years 
Spaniards  had  crossed  the  Isthmus  and  built  vessels 
on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  But  Columbus  never 
knew  of  the  existence  of  North  America.  The  Spanish 
dominions,  then,  spread  from  the  West  Indies  to 
Mexico,  and  southwards  along  the  Pacific  coast  of 
South  America  in  the  mountainous  parts  where  the 
precious  metals  were  mined.  The  old  inhabitants  were 
killed  or  converted  at  the  point  of  the  sword,  and  sold 
into  slavery  to  toil  for  their  new  masters,  so  that  the 
lands  which  the  Spaniards  conquered  became  Spanish 
even  in  speech. 

While  Mexico  was  being  conquered  Magellan  was 
endeavouring  to  complete  the  work  of  Columbus,  and 
sail  westwards  to  the  East  Indies  for  the  sake  of  the 
spice  trade.  Portuguese  by  birth,  he  had  himself  visited 
the  East  Indies,  perhaps  having  gone  as  far  as  the 
Moluccas,  and  had  realized  that  the  spice  trade  was 
the  source  of  enormous  wealth.  As  we  have  seen,  the 
Portuguese  were  not  interested  in  the  Western  Way 
to  the  Indies ;  the  Spaniards  were  not  greatly  interested 
in  the  spice  trade,  but  rivalry  with  Portugal  induced 
them  to  give  assistance  to  Magellan  as  they  had  given 
assistance  to  Columbus. 


144      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

Ma  gellan's  task  was  that  of  both  Diaz  and  Columbus. 
Like  Diaz  and  his  predecessors  he  had  to  find  a  passage 
round  the  south  of  the  great  land  mass  which  separated 
the  oceans,  and  like  Columbus  he  had  to  cross  a  mighty 
ocean  which  had  never  been  traversed.  He  had  to  pass 
farther  south  than  had  Diaz,  and  to  cross  a  mightier 
ocean  than  had  Columbus ;  yet  the  very  fact  that  similar 
difficulties  had  been  overcome  made  success  the  more 
probable,  as  the  sailors  were  more  willing  to  continue 
at  work  though  the  actual  difficulties  were  really  much 
greater. 

Magellan's  attempt  was  successful,  though  he  perished. 
The  East  Indies  were  reached,  westwards;  spices — 
cloves  —  were  brought  home.  Lands  on  the  far  East 
became  Spanish;  and  the  Spanish  occupation  left  its 
results;  the  Philippines  still  bear  the  name  of  a  Spanish 
king;  they  remained  Spanish  for  four  centuries,  for 
more  than  three  of  which  they  kept  the  calendar  of 
ships  sailing  westward  from  Spain  not  eastward  from 
Portugal;  and  even  now  they  inherit  the  evil  results 
of  a  nominal  but  ineffective  rule  granted  by  a  pope  to 
Spain  when  she  was  a  power  fighting  the  infidel  Moors. 

Yet  the  Spanish  route  to  the  Indies  was  a  failure. 
Not  only  was  the  western  route  much  longer  than  the 
eastern,  but  that  greater  length  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  had  to  cross  a  vast  stretch  of  ocean,  half-way 
round  the  world  (North  China,  on  the  one  side,  is  the 
antipodes  of  the  south  of  South  America,  on  the  other). 
In  this  vast  expanse  of  water  there  is  no  land.  Now, 
on  the  ocean  movement  is  more  easy,  there  is  less 
expenditure  of  energy  for  a  given  result  than  on  the 
land;  but  on  the  land  alone  can  man  settle  to  produce 
things — to  make  energy  available.     On  this  vast  ocean 


IBERIA  145 

nothing  could  be  produced,  and  in  the  Indies  on  the 
farther  side  only  spices,  which,  however  they  were  valued 
by  the  Portuguese,  were  thought  nothing  of  by  the 
Spaniards,  who  despised  trade  and  thought  only  of 
gold  and  silver. 

Thus  the  discovery  of  the  oneness  of  the  Ocean  resulted 
in  the  Portuguese  holding  the  keys  of  world  commerce 
in  place  of  the  Arabs,  while  the  discovery  of  the  shape 
of  the  globe  led  to  the  Spaniards  bringing  under  their 
control  much  of  America,  though  even  in  that  continent 
Brazil  fell  to  Portugal,  as  it  was  held  to  lie  within  the 
Portuguese  half  of  the  world. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  OCEAN  \     OCEAN  POWER  :  HOLLAND  AND  FRANCE 

Spain  and  Portugal  between  them  shared  for  a  while 
the  advantages  that  arose  from  the  discovery  of  the 
ocean ;  it  might  have  seemed  that,  backed  by  the 
authority  of  the  Pope,  they  should  have  continued  to 
share  that  power  for  all  time.  But  the  Pope  could  not 
alter  geographical  conditions  nor  the  control  exercised 
by  these  on  the  minds  of  men. 

We  have  seen  that  the  advantage  which  water  traffic 
possesses  over  land  traffic  lies  in  the  fact  that  goods 
can  be  carried  long  distances  far  more  cheaply  by  the 
former  than  by  the  latter.  Now  Iberia  may  face  the 
open  ocean,  but  it  is  evident  that  the  Peninsula  of 
Iberia — almost  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  Europe — is  not 
a  suitable  landing-place  for  the  greater  part  of  goods 
intended  for  the  continent.  Behind  Venice,  i.  e.  in  the 
plain  of  Lombardy,  there  was  a  land  populous  partly 
because  of  its  own  richness,  partly  because  of  the 
past  conditions  of  which  we  already  know.  Behind 
Lisbon  there  was  not  a  large  population ;  there  is  nothing 
like  the  Plain  of  Lombardy,  and  Spain  is  for  the  most 
part  an  arid  plateau.  Thus  the  bulk  of  the  spices 
brought  to  Lisbon  had  to  pass  into  the  interior  of  the 
continent  along  ways  by  which  goods  could  be  carried 
more  cheaply. 

146 


THE  OCEAN  147 

This  is  not  the  place  to  speak  exhaustively  of  the 
causes  of  the  Reformation,  or  of  the  Renascence  of 
which  it  was  one  phase.  Both  were  due  in  a  large 
measure  to  the  wider  outlook  on  the  world  induced  by 
the  historical  events  which  we  have  seen  to  have  been 
controlled  by  geographical  conditions.  But  it  is  to  be 
noticed  that  though  the  Renascence  affected  all  Europe, 
the  area  in  which  the  Reformation  took  most  hold  was 
that  farthest  removed  from  the  lands  dominated  by  the 
Catholic  Church,  just  as  Christianity  took  firmest  hold 
on  lands  untouched  by  Judaism.  It  was  the  area  in- 
habited by  peoples  to  whom  the  methods  of  presentation 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Catholic  Church  appealed  less 
than  to  those  who  had  been  under  the  power  of  Rome 
for  long,  and  who  were  under  somewhat  different  geo- 
graphical conditions.  The  historical  momentum  in  the 
north  was  different  from  that  in  the  south  of  Europe. 
The  machine  was  not  so  well  adapted  to  the  conditions, 
and  there  was  more  friction.  By  the  invention  of  print- 
ing in  these  northern  lands  an  enormous  saving  of 
energy  was  effected;  energy  was  set  free  which  could 
be  diverted  to  other  uses,  and  in  particular  the  new 
doctrines  were  spread  far  more  rapidly  than  otherwise 
would  have  been  the  case.  There  was  thus  a  certain 
latent  antagonism  between  North  Europe  and  South, 
so  that  when  an  occasion  arose  for  the  antagonism 
to  become  manifest,  it  is  not  wonderful  that  it  was 
used.  The  Protestant  Dutch  revolted  from  the  Catholic 
Spaniards. 

Their  ability  as  well  as  their  inclination  to  free  them- 
selves depended  on  geographical  factors.  During  the 
Middle  Ages  it  was  necessary  that  some  communication 
should  be  held  between  Northern  Europe,  which  was 


H8   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

gradually  becoming  civilized,  and  the  already- civilized 
lands  of  the  South.     The  Strait  of  Gibraltar  was  held 


THE    RHINE    VALLEY. 

The  Rhine  Valley  is  an  almost  isolated  portion  of  plain  surrounded 
by  highland. 

by  the  Moors ;  there  were  no  roads,  so  that  rivers  were 
all-important.     Now,  alone  of  north-flowing  European 


THE  OCEAN  149 

rivers  the  Rhine  rises  in  the  mountains  on  the  south  of 
Europe,  in  the  Alps.  Further,  on  a  map  of  Western 
Europe  its  valley  is  seen  to  be  cut  down  through  the 
surrounding  plateau  to  a  few  hundred  feet  above  sea- 
level.  This  valley  was  the  main  street  of  North 
Western  Europe ;  wool  from  England — the  Australia  of 
the  Middle  Ages — was  sent  by  this  route  to  the  manu- 
facturing cities  of  Northern  Italy  such  as  Florence  and 
Pisa,  because  in  these  cities  there  was  a  population 
which  could  afford  to  pay  for  the  luxury  of  fine 
woollen  clothing.  The  traffic  in  wool,  rather  a  bulky 
article,  induced  traffic  in  other  commodities.  In  course 
of  time  woollen  factories  were  established  in  the  Nether- 
lands, the  land  through  which  a  good  portion  of  the 
wool  was  sent.  These  manufacturing  towns  were  in 
what  is  now  Belgium,  but  the  importance  of  Holland 
advanced  along  with  that  of  Belgium.  The  Belgians 
were  not  sailors ;  the  Dutch,  to  give  them  their  modern 
name,  had  always  been  seamen.  Inhabitants  of  islands 
along  the  shores  of  a  shallow  sea,  they  had  been  forced 
to  earn  a  scanty  livelihood  by  fishing.  Then,  as  a  wealthy 
population  gradually  gathered  in  the  lands  to  the  west, 
they  made  much  profit  on  the  fish  they  supplied  to  this 
community.  The  fishing  industry  increased,  and  with 
it  the  wealth  of  the  Dutch  and  the  numbers  of  their 
fishermen.  This  intercourse  also  naturally  led  to  the 
employment  of  these  fishermen  as  sea-carriers  for  the 
merchants  of  Belgium.  In  Spain  and  Portugal  only  a 
small  proportion  of  the  population  were  sailors :  very 
few  ships  sufficed  to  bring  all  the  spices  or  gold  and 
silver  to  Iberia.  So  many  ships  belonged  to  Holland, 
however,  that  it  was  seriously  proposed,  when  the  fight 
for  freedom  seemed  hopeless,  to  place  the  whole  popu- 


150      GEOCRAIMIY    AND    WORLD   POWBB 

lation  on  board  ship  and  seek  a  home  beyond  the  seas. 
Hence  in  the  Netherlands  there  were  communities  of 
merchants  and  traders,  and  southwards  bom  this  land 
there  ran  the  finest  waterway  into  the  heart  of  the 
continent.  It  was  no  wonder  that  the  Belgian  city 
of  Antwerp  became  the  principal  merchant  centre  in 
Europe,  and  that  the  Dutch  added  to  their  other 
trade  that  of  carriers  of  spices,  and  made  much  profit 
therefrom. 

The  Belgian  Netherlands  had  access  to  the  sea,  but 
the  inhabitants  were  merchants  and  manufacturers 
rather  than  sea-carriers.  The  wealth  of  the  Indies 
poured  into  the  country,  but  their  land  was  not  easily 
defended.  The  first  Dutch  centre  of  freedom  was  the 
outermost  island  of  the  Rhine  estuary.  They  could  and 
did  flood  their  land  so  that  they  might  drown  their 
enemies  and  allow  their  flat-bottomed  ships  to  approach 
beleaguered  cities,  and  they  speedily  found  they  had 
command  of  the  sea.  Belgium  had  none  of  these 
advantages,  and  remained  under  the  power  of  Spain, 
while  the  Dutch  not  only  became  a  nation  of  traders, 
but  for  a  time  held  the  ocean  power  of  the  world. 

Now  the  Spaniards  made  an  essential  mistake.  Gold 
and  silver  and  so-called  precious  stones  in  themselves 
are  not  wealth.  By  a  convention  they  stand  for  so 
much  energy,  but  they  are  not  energy.  There  was  no 
saving  of  energy  to  any  land  by  the  Spanish  conquest 
of  it,  and  that  conquest  brought  little  real  wealth  to 
Spain.  The  small  territory  of  the  Netherlands  brought 
four  times  as  much  income  to  the  Spanish  coffers  as 
all  the  lands  of  Mexico  and  Peru.  In  the  one  land, 
energy  was  saved  and  there  was  much  to  spare ;  in 
the  other,  little  was  saved  and  there  was  none  to  spare. 


OCEAN   POWER  151 

The  ocean  power  of  the  Spanish  depended  only  on  their 
gold;  the  ocean  power  of  the  Dutch  depended  on  the 
fact  that  they  used  their  own  energy  to  make  more 
energy  available,  and  more  energy  accumulated  in 
their  hands,  so  that  a  great  part  of  the  gold  which  the 
Spaniards  obtained  from  the  Indies  eventually  passed 
to  Holland.  Mere  military  conquest  of  a  land  brings 
about  no  saving  in  energy. 

And  not  only  did  Spain  conquer  lands  across  the 
ocean,  but  for  a  time  she  even  brought  Portugal  under 
her  control  and  destroyed  the  power  which,  not  so 
favourably  situated  as  was  Holland  for  trade  with  the 
rest  of  Europe,  was  yet  accumulating  energy  by  the 
trade  in  spices  of  which  she  had  control.  Holland 
seized  the  opportunity.  By  1578  Holland,  under  the 
leadership  of  William  the  Silent,  had  thrown  off  all 
effective  control  by  Spain.  At  enmity  with  Spain, 
recognizing  no  Papal  bulls,  the  Dutch  roved  the  seas 
and  snatched  from  their  enemy  any  lands  with  which 
trade  was  possible.  These  lands  had  been  Portuguese 
for  the  most  part,  but  now,  Spanish  or  Portuguese,  it 
made  no  difference  to  the  Dutch.  Before  another  half- 
century  was  over  Dutchmen  had  sailed  all  over  the 
world.  At  the  zenith  of  their  power  a  few  years  later, 
they  were  supreme  in  the  East  Indies ;  they  had  settle- 
ments in  Brazil  and  Guiana;  they  had  discovered  and 
rounded  Cape  Horn,  which  they  named  after  one  of 
their  own  little  fishing  villages.  They  possessed  trading- 
stations  on  the  coast  of  Guinea ;  they  had  settlements 
at  Cape  Town  on  the  way  to  the  Indies;  Mauritius 
(called  after  their  own  Prince  Maurice)  and  Ceylon  were 
theirs ;  and  they  held  the  key  to  the  entrance  of  North 
America  at  New  Amsterdam.     In  addition  they   did 


152      GEOGRAPHY    AND   WORLD   POWER 

the  gieatei  pari  of  the  European  carrying-trade,  and 
even  had  the  carriage  of  goods  between  America  and 
France  and  Spain.  They  had  made  themselves,  as 
they  said,  the  wagoners  of  the  seas.  Such  ocean  power 
as  Portugal  and  Spain  had  possessed  passed  entirely  from 
them,  yet  Spain  still  retained  her  conquests. 

But  for  geographical  reasons  a  lasting  Dutch  ocean 
power  was  as  impossible  as  was  a  Spanish  or  Portuguese 
dominion.  There  was  an  advance  in  the  saving  of 
energy;  products  of  far  distant  lands  were  made  avail- 
able more  cheaply,  but  something  more  was  necessary. 

Any  engine  requires  "  packing  "  and  protection ;  the 
energy  of  the  machine  must  be  prevented  as  far  as 
possible  from  dissipating  itself  without  doing  work,  and 
adverse  influences  must  be  prevented  from  injuring  it. 
To  do  this,  energy  must  be  expended  in  suitable  ways, 
but  the  less  energy  thus  expended  the  better.  Now 
Holland  is  not  naturally  able  to  supply  enough  energy 
to  protect  herself.  The  Rhine  Delta  is  too  small;  it 
cannot  support  a  very  great  population.  The  number 
of  men  with  a  community  of  interest  and  sympathy 
must  of  necessity  be  small.  The  Spaniards  were  not 
really  seamen ;  the  Dutch  were  seamen,  and  when  the 
struggle  was  between  these  two,  command  of  the  ocean 
went  to  the  nation  of  seamen ;  but  when  there  came 
a  struggle  between  the  Dutch  and  another  nation  of 
seamen  other  considerations  arose. 

Further,  though  the  marshes  and  channels  of  the 
Delta  were  of  great  service — as  the  lagoons  of  Venice 
and  the  marshes  of  Babylonia  had  been — in  protecting 
the  sailor  state,  though  it  was  owing  to  them  that 
Holland  gained  her  independence  of  Spain  and  a  century 
later  kept  it  against  France,  yet  the  very  fact  that  her 


HOLLAND   AND   FRANCE  153 

borders  required  defence  shows  that  a  certain  amount 
of  her  scanty  man-power  had  to  be  set  aside  to  guard 
these  defences,  and  when  she  was  attacked  by  both 
land  and  sea  it  is  no  wonder  that  she  succumbed. 

We  must  now  consider  that  state  which,  while  an 
agent  in  bringing  about  the  downfall  of  Holland,  at  the 
same  time  made  an  effort  to  gain  the  ocean  power  of 
the  world — France. 

We  have  seen  how  the  Roman  Empire  extended  over 
all  West  Europe,  Iberia,  Gaul  and  South  Britain. 
Under  the  Roman  Empire  these  lands  began  to  be  of 
account  in  history.  We  have  seen  also  how  the  Roman 
power  was  overthrown  by  tribes  outside  the  Empire. 
Eventually  there  grew  up  among  the  Germanic  tribes 
to  the  north,  who  had  never  acknowledged  Roman  rule, 
a  power  which  was  recognized  by  the  Pope  at  Rome, 
and,  because  recognized  by  him  as  representing  the  past 
in  history,  was  called  the  Empire.  This  Empire  included 
what  is  now  France  and  Germany.  It  did  not  include 
Iberia,  which,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  at  this  time 
Mohammedan  or  Moorish.  This  Empire  split  up  quite 
naturally  at  first  into  three  parts  :  that  on  the  west 
which  had  been  Roman,  that  on  the  east  which  had  not 
been  Roman,  and  the  debateable  land  between.  The 
two  first  were  naturally  more  important  than  the  third, 
and  the  debateable  land  became  absorbed  to  a  greater 
or  less  extent  in  one  or  other.  France,  then,  gradually 
emerged  from  the  western  portion,  but  it  must  be  noticed 
that  there  was  no  France  in  Roman  times ;  there  was 
no  France  under  the  Early  Empire  of  Charlemagne. 
Under  the  Roman  Empire  and  under  the  Teutonic 
Empire  the  land  called  France  was  civilized,  but  there 
was  no  France.     Now  it   is   necessary  to   notice  what 


lM   GEOGRAPHY  AND  WOULD  POWER 


are  the  natural  units  of  this  land   called    Fiance.     We 
have  already  seen  the  importance  of  the  Marseilles  or 

Rhone  Valley  entry  in  Roman  times.     Here  the  Romans 
ruled  a  land    before  they  had   conquered  the  plain  of 


THE   NATURAL   RELIEF   REGIONS    OF   FRANCE. 

Lombardy  :  this  was  their  first  province.  Here  there 
is  a  lowland  made  up  of  the  coast  plain,  the  Rhone- 
Saone  Valley  and  the  gap  between  the  Pyrenees  and  the 
southern  highland.  This  highland  is  set  in  the  gap 
between  the  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees.     It   has    upland 


HOLLAND   AND   FRANCE 


155 


economic  conditions,  and  is  thus  contrasted  with  the 
lowland  on  either  side.  The  Cevennes  form  merely 
the  steep  south-eastern  edge  of   the  highland.     From 


v/ 


mmsoo-/5oofT  gi 


\ovenl500n 


THE    SITUATION    OF   TARIS. 
The  natural  land  roads  of  France  are  directed  on  Paris. 

the  highest  central  part  of  the  Cevennes  runs  a  high 
water-parting  in  the  direction  of  Brittany.  On  this 
the  Auvergne  heights  are  set.     On  either  side  of  this 


156      GEOGRAPHY   AND  WORLD  TOWER 

w. I  tor-parting  are  plains,  Aquitaine,  and  the  plain  of 
Northern  France,  having  soils  composed  of  the  well- 
mixed  debris  of  different  rocks  and  therefore  fertile. 
The  strata  which  fill  the  valleys  of  the  Loire  and 
Garonne  just  go  through  the  gate  of  Poitiers,  produce 
a  fertile  soil,  and  allow  of  easy  means  of  communication 
between  the  plains. 

There  were  no  roads  in  the  Middle  Ages,  as  the  Roman 
roads  had  fallen  into  disrepair  and  disuse.  Traffic  was 
then  mostly  along  rivers,  even  along  rivers  such  as  we 
should  not  use  now.  In  the  northern  plain  the  influence 
of  the  waterways  is  supreme.  The  Seine  and  its  tribu- 
taries are  navigable  almost  from  their  sources;  the 
Oise  from  the  north-east  joins  the  Seine  just  below 
Paris ;  the  Marne  from  the  east  just  above ;  the  Yonne 
comes  from  the  south.  There  is  thus  a  convergence 
of  waterways  directed  on  Paris.  But  this  is  not  all : 
the  two  stretches  of  the  Loire  which  meet  at  Orleans 
are  also  two  ways  directed  on  Paris,  one  up-river  and 
the  other  down.  The  up-river  stretch  leads  from  the 
direction  of  Aquitaine;  the  down-river  stretch  leads 
from  the  heights  of  the  south  valleys  in  the  southern 
highlands.  Further,  the  long  Rhone-Saone  Valley, 
giving  access  to  the  southern  plain  of  Languedoc,  is  also 
approached  by  an  easy  climb  over  the  Cote-d'Or,  so  that 
even  this  area  may  be  brought  into  touch  with  Paris. 

Thus,  just  in  the  same  way  as  the  Roman  Empire 
grew  round  the  city  of  Rome,  so  did  France  grow  round 
Paris.  Rome  became  important  when  the  south  of 
Italy  was  assailed  by  landmen  from  the  North;  Paris 
first  became  important  when  the  Norsemen,  sailing  along 
the  coasts  of  Europe,  entered  the  river  Seine  and  passed 
upwards  till  they  came  to  a  small  island  in  the  midst 


HOLLAND   AND   FRANCE  157 

of  the  stream.  Here,  because  it  formed  a  convenient 
crossing-place,  a  bridge  had  been  erected;  but  a  bridge 
prevents  the  passage  of  boats,  and  here  the  seamen 
from  the  North  found  a  limit  placed  to  their  invasions. 


THE    WATERWAYS    OF   THE   NORTHERN   PLAIN   OF   FRANCE. 

These  waterways  are  directed  on  Paris. 

Paris  withstood  the  Norsemen  and  gained  in  importance 
by  so  doing. 

Then  the  rulers  of  these  same  Normans  became  not 
only  conquerors  of  England,  but  rulers  of  various  parts 
of  the  west  of  what  is  now  France.     To  the  common 


158      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

people  it  mattered  little  who  ruled  them,  but  on  the 
whole  the  ruler  of  Kngland,  just  because  he  was  ruler 
of  England,  was  rather  less  trusted  than  the  ruler  in 
Paris,  and  eventually  all  the  various  units  aeknowledged 
the  ruler  in  Paris  as  supreme.  This  process  was  hastened 
because  the  King  of  England  and  his  representatives 
unconsciously  looked  on  the  lands  south  of  the  Channel 
as  foreign;  e.g.  the  Black  Prince  ravaged  southwards 
from  Bordeaux  for  no  other  reason  than  to  obtain  booty. 

Now  France  being  a  land  whose  centre  is  Paris,  the 
actual  limits  of  France  are  of  less  account,  but  they  are 
clearly  marked  by  the  sea  on  the  north  and  west  and 
part  of  the  south.  On  the  western  half  of  the  south 
there  is  a  highland  region,  the  Pyrenees,  which  also 
marks  off  fairly  definitely  the  limits  of  France  in  that 
direction;  only  on  the  east  there  is  no  such  definite 
frontier. 

Within  these  limits  France,  during  a  great  part  of 
her  history,  was  occupied  by  the  evolution  of  a  national 
unity.  Her  people  were  almost  entirely  engaged  in 
agriculture.  With  a  pleasant  climate,  neither  over 
warm  in  summer  nor  cold  in  winter,  with  sufficient 
rainfall,  and  for  the  most  part  a  fertile  soil,  France 
produced  food  enough  for  her  people.  There  was  little 
to  tempt  or  force  them  on  to  the  seas.  There  was  little 
to  tempt  them  beyond  their  own  lands,  except  on  the 
east.  French  armies  and  French  navies  there  were,  but 
they  were  for  defence.  No  considerable  number  of  her 
people  were  sailors,  for  there  was  little  to  be  gained  on 
the  sea. 

Here,  then,  is  France,  her  south-east  within  touch  of 
the  early  civilizations  of  the  Mediterranean,  so  that 
Marseilles  was  a  Greek  city  and  Provence  was  the  first 


HOLLAND   AND   FRANCE  159 

Roman  Province  outside  the  peninsula  of  Italy,  and 
the  language  of  the  people  is  but  a  dialect  of  Latin; 
set  between  Spain  and  Holland,  facing  the  open  Atlantic 
and  having  opportunities  for  ocean  power,  but  with  a 
doubtful  frontier  on  the  east  which  seems  to  tempt  to 
land  expansion ;  and  yet  self-sufficient  if  she  would. 

The  later  history  of  France  has  been  dominated  at 
one  time  by  a  trust  in  that  self-sufficiency,  at  another 
by  attempts  at  land  expansion,  and  at  a  third  by  a 
desire  to  obtain  control  of  ocean  power;  while  always 
the  centralizing  effect  of  Paris  has  been  to  introduce  a 
systematizing  centralization  into  each  policy. 

This  state,  then,  was  an  agent  in  bringing  about  the 
downfall  of  the  ocean  power  of  the  Dutch,  but  was  not 
able  herself  to  gain  command  of  that  ocean  power  because 
her  interests  were  divided. 

By  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  unification 
of  France  round  Paris  was  complete;  by  the  end  of 
the  century  Provence,  Brittany  and  the  Duchy  of 
Burgundy  had  been  added.  The  first  and  second  then 
lay  farthest  from  the  centralizing  influence  of  Paris,  the 
last  on  that  debateable  middle  land  where  no  definite 
natural  frontier  exists.  But  this  led  to  trouble  with 
the  land  power  on  the  east,  and  for  another  fifty  years 
the  external  history  of  France  is  taken  up  with  the  story 
of  the  attempts  to  hold  this  new  eastern  frontier,  while 
the  internal  history  shows  us  France  united  under  an 
absolute  monarch  in  Paris,  now  the  finest  city  in 
Europe. 

Thence  onward  for  another  half-century  this  united 
centralized  France  had  to  grapple  with  the  problems  of 
religious  contention  introduced  into  all  the  northern 
lands  by  the  doctrines  of  the  Reformation.     By  1600 


1G0      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

these  problems  had  found  a  solution,  and  this  united 
France  remained  Catholic. 

By  this  time  the  Dutch  were  entering  on  their  career 
overseas.  The  aims  of  the  rulers  of  France  were 
beginning  to  be  influenced  by  these  new  conditions, 
but  still  the  fact  that  the  eastern  border  was  an 
indefinite  land  frontier  determined  that  the  policy 
should  be  divided.  Richelieu  aimed  at  the  develop- 
ment of  a  great  sea-power  which  should  add  to  the 
wealth  of  the  kingdom,  but  he  also  aimed  at  the  extension 
of  the  boundaries  of  France  to  the  eastward,  so  that 
more  agricultural  land  should  be  under  French  rule. 
The  result  of  this  double  attempt  was  to  destroy  the 
power  of  Holland,  to  weaken  the  power  of  Austria 
which  now  dominated  the  land  beyond  the  French 
frontiers,  and  eventually  to  cripple  seriously  the  power 
of  France.  These  results  were,  however,  brought  about 
largely  because  of  the  influence  of  the  latest  ocean 
power  of  the  northern  world.  We  must,  then,  consider 
the  geographical  conditions  of  Britain  as  far  as  they 
have  affected  the  course  of  historv. 


CHAPTER  XI 


THE    OCEAN :     OCEAN   EMPIRE  :     BRITAIN 

One   obvious  difference  between  Britain  and  other 
lands  which  we  have  already  considered  is  that  Britain 


j   over  40 l 
over 50' 

SEA  TEMPERATURES  IN  THE  BRITISH  SEAS  IN  JANUARY, 

alone  is  an  island,  or  pair  of  islands,  of  a  fair  size,  capable 
of  supporting  a  considerable  population.     There  are, 
however,  other  geographical  conditions  which  must  be 
M  161 


1G2      GEOC1: AI'llY    AND    WORLD   POWER 


considered  before  we  can  understand  the  peculiar  part 
she  has  played  in  history. 

(i)  Climate. — Britain,  in  common  with  the  other  ocean 
lands,  possesses  an  equable  climate.  The  prevailing 
westerly  winds  have  banked  up  along  the  shores  of 
North- Western  Europe  a  half-mile-deep  mass  of  water 


w/AArpa  frozen  on  the  average 
during  the  whole  of  January: 

THE   GULF   OF  WARMTH. 
The  map  shows  the  exceptional  climatic  position  of  Britain. 

warmer  than  is  normal  in  those  latitudes.  This  in 
winter  prevents  the  freezing  of  the  soil,  of  the  rivers, 
and  of  the  shore  waters.  Britain  also  lies  far  enough 
north  to  be  warm  rather  than  hot  in  summer,  and  is 
besides  still  under  the  influence  of  the  ocean.  Thus 
work  by  land  and  sea  is  possible  all  the  year  round. 
There  is  cold  in  winter  to  brace,  but  not  to  numb; 
there  is  heat  in  summer,  but  it  does  not  enervate. 
Energy  may  be  saved  all  the  time.  Further,  the 
westerly  winds  bring  cyclonic  storms  which  drop  the 


BRITAIN  163 

rain  over  the  land,  grass  may  grow  at  all  seasons,  and 
there  is  no  great  likelihood  of  drought  in  summer. 

(ii)  Relief. — In  the  island  of  Great  Britain  there  are 
two  lowlands;  the  larger  in  the  south-east  being  the 
essential  part  of  England,  the  smaller  between  the  Forth 
and  Clyde  being  the  essential  part  of  Scotland.1  In 
Ireland  a  lowland  extends  east  and  west  through  the 
midst  of  the  island.  Hence  in  those  lowlands  there  are 
possibilities  of  agriculture  over  considerable  areas.  The 
units  are  fairly  large;  the  lowland  of  England  is  com- 
parable with  the  lowland  of  France,  and  though  there 
may  not  be  much  stability  in  an  age  when  political 
units  are  all  small,  yet  when  civilization  has  advanced 
far  enough  to  allow  of  one  government  controlling  the 
whole  lowland,  that  government  may  be  fairly  homo- 
geneous and  stable. 

(iii)  Tides. — Now  if  we  look  at  a  map  of  North- 
western Europe  showing  the  depth  of  the  sea,  i.  e.  the 
relief  below  sea-level,  we  shall  notice  that  Britain  is  set 
on  a  ledge  which  is  just  covered  by  water;  if  the  land 
were  raised  some  600  feet  Britain  would  be  joined  to 
the  Continent,  not  only  across  the  strait  of  Dover  but 
across  the  whole  North  Sea  and  English  Channel.  This 
has  important  results.  The  tidal  wave  generated  in  the 
great  Southern  Ocean  where  the  water  extends  com- 
pletely round  the  globe,  sweeps  up  the  Indian,  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  Oceans  at  a  great  speed,  but  causes  a  rise 
and  fall  of  only  a  foot  or  so.  When  this  wave  approaches 
a  shallow  shore,  its  speed  is  checked  but  its  height  is 
increased.  If  this  shallow  shore  has  great  width,  the 
tidal  rise  and  fall  become  considerable ;  but  if  the  tidal 
wave  approaches  a  continent  whose  shores  descend 
1  These  are  "lowlands,"  not  "plains." 


101      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

steeply  to  great  depths,  the  height  is  scarcely  increased 
at  all,  and  there  are  no  tides.  For  this  reason  there  are 
mi  tides  of  any  size  on  the  shores  of  Norway  and  of  Spain. 
There  are  no 1  t  ides,  obviously,  in  enclosed  seas  like  the 
Baltic  and  .Mediterranean,  because  the  oceanic  tidal 
wave  cannot  enter  those  seas.  It  is  only  on  (lie  shores 
of  Britain,  and  on  the  opposite  shores  of  the  Contir 
from  Hamburg  to  the  head  of  the  Bay  of  Biscay,  that 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide  twice  a  day  can  keep  the 
mouths  of  rivers  free  from  silt,  and  can  at  all  times  carry 
boats  to  and  from  the  sea  round  curves  which  sailing 
vessels  find  it  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  pass.  Thus 
Britain  shares  with  Northern  France  and  Western 
Germany  the  advantage  of  having  estuaries  which  can 
be  entered  from  the  open  sea.  Goods  might  be  brought 
far  inland,  and  energy  might  be  saved  by  so  doing,  espe- 
cially in  the  Middle  Ages  when  men  had  forgotten  how  to 
make  roads,  and  railways  were  not  yet  thought  of. 

(iv)  Position  ivith  regard  to  the  Old  World. — Britain 
also  shares  with  the  other  lands  on  the  north-west  of 
Europe  the  characteristic  of  being  on  the  outer  fringe  of 
all  the  world  that  mattered  in  the  days  before  America 
was  discovered.  Britain  was  at  the  end  of  all  things, 
and  on  the  road  to  nowhere.  Neither  the  steppe- 
dwellers  from  the  East  nor  the  Mohammedans  from  the 
South  ever  saw  her  shores,  though  the  Moors  reached 
Poitiers  and  the  Bulgarians  crossed  the  Rhine.  Thus 
Britain  was  left  alone :  she  was  not  like  Sicily,  an  island 
which  seemingly  ought  to  have  had  a  history  of  its  own, 
for  Sicily  was  set  between  East  and  West,  between 
North  and  South,  between  Greek  and  Phoenician,  be- 

1  This  requires  qualification;  there  are  local  tides,  but  for 
practical  pui  poses  they  are  negligible 


BRITAIN 


165 


tween  Roman  and  Carthaginian,  between  Christian  and 
Mohammedan,  between  Norman  and  Saracen,  between 


THE   APPROACHES   TO   BRITAIN. 

The  map  shows  that  Britain  is  approached  effectively  from  little 
more  than  half-way  round.  Northern  Norway  is  of  comparatively 
little  account. 

Turk  and  Spaniard;  so  that  the  history  of  Sicily  is 
simply  the  history  of  strifes  between  different  powers 
which  met  in  Sicily  on  common  ground,  because  Sicily 


166      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

was  in  the  midst  of  the  ancient  and  mediaeval  world 
round  the  Mediterranean.  Till  the  ocean  leaped  to 
importance  with  the  discoveries  of  Portuguese  and 
Spaniards,  Britain  was  largely  a  land  apart,  and  even 
now  Britain  does  not  owe  any  of  her  importance  to  her 
position  in  the  centre  of  the  land  mass.  If  we  con- 
sider the  routes  that  ships  take  from  and  to  Britain 
we  see  that  from  nearly  half  a  circle — from  west  round 
by  north  to  north-east — practically  no  traffic  reaches 
Britain.  Northwards  is  still  the  road  to  and  from 
nowhere.  Attack  is  the  less  likely  to  come  from  that 
side. 

Now  all  those  conditions  have  controlled  the  history 
of  Britain,  sometimes  together,  sometimes  separately. 

Set  at  the  end  of  the  world,  Britain  was  for  long 
ages  the  last  refuge  of  many  tribes  who  entered  at  the 
continental  angle  at  Dover,  and  were  forced  by  later 
immigrants  farther  and  farther  towards  the  north-west. 
What  the  force  was  that  impelled  those  people  to  cross 
to  Britain,  whose  shores  they  could  see  from  the  con- 
tinent, we  cannot  say,  though  we  may  surmise.  Each 
successive  wave  of  immigrants  seems  to  have  had  a 
higher  form  of  civilization  than  the  preceding;  they 
were  more  able  to  use  energy  in  either  war  or  peace. 
The  methods  of  using  and  saving  energy  they  had  learned, 
no  doubt,  from  other  people,  but  as  they  were  only 
imitators  they  scarcely  counted  in  history.  Then  at 
last  the  English  lowland  became  part  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  and  Britain  was  brought  into  the  world. 

With  the  departure  of  the  Romans,  the  fact  that 
Britain  was  an  island  continued  to  have  effect.  There 
was  then  no  central  organization  within  Britain,  so  that 
the  fact  that  Britain  was  an  island  resulted  in  successful 


BKITAIN  167 

attacks  on  all  sides  by  seamen  who  came  from  over  the 
North  Sea.  The  Saxons  and  Jutes  and  Angles  and 
Danes  and  Norsemen  attacked  on  south  and  east  and 
north  and  west,  setting  up  small  states  and  introducing 
customs  and  ways  of  living  the  influence  of  which  is  felt 
to  this  day.  There  was  even  for  a  few  years  an  empire 
based  on  the  North  Sea  and  including  practically  all  the 
lowland  of  England. 

At  length  the  Channel  was  again  crossed  by  the  Nor- 
mans, and  the  lowland  of  England  was  strongly  ruled 
from  within  by  William  and  his  sons.  The  rule  natur- 
ally centred  in  London.  Near  the  head  of  the  tideway, 
and  on  the  first  firm  ground  amid  the  marshes  of 
the  northern  bank,  it  was  marked  out  as  the  crossing- 
place  to  which  roads  converged  in  the  Lower  Thames 
Valley,  as  well  as  the  point  to  which  ships  might  come. 
Between  the  Downs  and  the  Chilterns  it  had  no  rival; 
only  in  the  other  basin  entered  by  Southampton  Water, 
had  there  been  another  possible  centre  at  Winchester. 
It  appeared  for  a  time  as  if  the  plains  of  Northern  and 
Western  France  might  also  be  ruled  from  the  English 
centre :  the  Angevin  kingdom  stretched  from  the 
Cheviots  to  the  Pyrenees.  Then  the  fact  that  Britain  is 
an  island  began  to  control  history  in  other  ways  :  the 
natural  jealousies  of  peoples  speaking  alien  tongues 
asserted  themselves,  and  the  peoples  of  what  is  now 
France,  hating  the  ruler  in  Paris  who  spoke  French 
rather  less  than  the  ruler  across  the  Channel  in  London 
who  spoke  English,  eventually  united  round  Paris  to 
form  the  French  nation.  Yet  the  Channel  Islands 
never  belonged  to  France :  they  were  held  by  the  Nor- 
mans before  they  conquered  England,  and  remain  as 
a  reminder  that  for  many  centuries  in  British  history 


168      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD  POWER 

the  sea  was  not  a  protection,  but  a  means  of  approach 
for  seamen. 

Then  the  centralized  government  in  the  English 
lowland  gradually  came  to  control  more  than  the  low- 
land. For  long  the  highland  of  Wales,  with  different 
characteristics,  was  a  land  apart ;  for  long  the  lowland 
of  Scotland,  with  a  central  government  of  its  own, 
had  an  independent  existence  defended  as  it  was  by 
the  broad  stretch  of  moorland,  inhabited  only  by  raid- 
ing cattle  thieves,  which  fills  all  the  north  of  England 
and  the  south  of  Scotland.  Neither  in  Roman  times 
nor  for  more  than  a  thousand  years  thereafter  was 
Great  Britain  one :  the  highlands  here,  as  always, 
tended  to  produce  different  political  conditions  as  a 
result  of  different  economic  conditions.  But  eventually 
the  whole  island  became  one  centralized  political  unit, 
defended  by  the  sea  and  using  the  sea  as  a  defence. 

Within  this  political  unit,  and  while  the  lowlands 
were  still  separate,  energy  was  being  accumulated. 
Wool  was  obtained  from  sheep  fed  on  grass,  which  could 
grow  all  the  year  round ;  sheep  could  be  kept,  because 
the  strong  government  guaranteed  alike  freedom  from 
invasion,  and  an  absence  of  anarchy.  The  wool  was 
sold  to  merchants  overseas.  Gradually  a  trade  grew 
up  by  which  further  energy  was  accumulated,  due  to 
the  fact  that  men  could  work  all  the  year  round,  and 
ships  could  come  far  inland  with  and  for  their  cargoes. 
This  advance  was  possible,  not  only  because  a  protection 
was  afforded  all  round  by  the  sea,  but  also  because 
there  was  a  central  government.  England  became,  in 
fact,  the  first  centralized  European  state  of  modern 
times. 

And  all  this  time  Britain  was  at  the  end  of  the  world. 


BRITAIN  169 

By  the  discovery  of  the  ocean  and  of  America,  Britain 
was  affected  in  two  ways. 

(i)  She  was  found  to  be  open  to  the  ocean,  just  as  were 
Portugal,  Spain,  Holland  and  France.  From  Britain,  as 
from  those  lands,  men  could  and  did  easily  sail  all  over 
the  world;  they  even  attempted  to  find  the  Indies. 
For  some  twelve  years  before  the  voyage  of  Columbus, 
merchants  of  Bristol  had  sent  vessels  out  into  the  At- 
lantic to  try  to  discover  islands  which  should  at  any  rate 
form  stepping-stones  to  the  spice  lands  of  the  East. 

(ii)  When  traffic  developed  along  the  ocean  way  to 
the  Indies  and  to  America,  the  southern  shores  of  Britain 
were  in  close  touch  with  it,  yet  the  north-west  remained 
remote  from  all  traffic  and  attack. 

Then,  as  we  have  learned  to  expect,  the  previous 
history  of  Britain  as  well  as  the  geographical  conditions 
controlled  the  further  history.  Defending  herself  on 
the  surrounding  seas,  saving  energy  because  her  govern- 
ment was  centralized,  and  because  she  was  secure, 
England  had  taken  her  place  among  the  states  that  had 
arisen  in  the  Middle  Ages.  Many  of  her  inhabitants  were 
sailors;  her  merchants,  on  whom  her  growing  wealth, 
that  is,  her  accumulated  energy,  depended,  recognized 
that  they  drew  their  wealth  from  commerce  overseas. 
The  sea  was  not  an  unknown  thing.  But  at  first  no 
very  great  advantage  came  to  Britain  from  the  discovery 
of  the  Indies.  First  Portugal  and  then  Holland  took 
the  larger  share  of  the  trade  that  had  belonged  to  the 
Italian  Republics,  and  Spain  controlled  the  lands  from 
which  the  precious  metals  came.  It  is  true  that  the 
English  seamen  were  more  than  a  match  for  the  soldiers 
of  Spain,  who,  unaccustomed  to  the  sea,  came  in  their 
great  Armada.     The  English  ships,  though  smaller  than 


170      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

the  Spanish  vessels,  were  more  easily  handled,  for  they 
were  essentially  merchant  ships,  built  for  sea  and  used 
by  sailors ;  while  the  Spanish  ships  were  rather  floating 
castles,  built  for  soldiers  who  wore  fighting  on  sea,  and 
suitable  for  fighting  after  the  manner  of  land  warfare. 
English  seamen  such  as  Raleigh  and  Drake  did  attempt 
to  bring  home  treasure  from  the  Spanish  lands  on  the 
west,  but  the  rulers  of  England,  unlike  those  of  Spain, 
were  unaccustomed  to  the  idea  of  conquest,  and  so  were 
not  then  eager  to  hold  distant  lands  beyond  the  seas ; 
little  resulted  from  the  founding  even  of  Raleigh's 
colony  of  Virginia,  where  he  looked  for  gold  but  could 
find  none,  except  to  give  men  of  later  generations  the 
idea  of  crossing  the  seas  to  cultivate  the  land. 

Nor  was  Britain's  prosperity  at  once  affected,  as  was 
that  of  Portugal  and  Holland,  by  the  idea  of  trade.  At 
first,  before  the  Reformation,  Portugal,  by  decree  of  the 
Pope,  had  the  monopoly ;  and  later  the  Dutch,  holding 
the  key  to  the  main  route  by  which  the  produce  of  the 
Indies  entered  Northern  Europe,  were  naturally  stimu- 
lated to  become  the  wagoners  of  the  seas,  and  to  accumu- 
late energy  enough  to  enable  them  to  win  their  inde- 
pendence of  Spain,  sooner  than  Britain,  through  whose 
land  no  obvious  route  passed.  But  Britain  lies  so  close 
to  Holland  that  British  merchants  soon  endeavoured  to 
supply  Britain  with  the  products  of  distant  lands  cheaply, 
and  so  found  themselves  in  competition  with  and  opposed 
to  the  Dutch.  Enmities  naturally  arose.  Britain  was 
brought  into  conflict  with  Holland  and  with  France,  and 
in  little  more  than  a  century  became  not  only  a  sea-power 
but  the  sea-power,  the  Ocean  Power. 

The  struggle  lasted  from  the  end  of  the  sixteenth 
century  till  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth,  but  the  first 


BRITAIN  171 

half  of  the  time  was  spent  in  nominal  peace.  From 
1600,  when  the  Dutch  put  up  the  price  of  pepper  from 
3s.  to  6s.  a  lb.,  and  in  self-defence  the  British  East  India 
Company  was  founded,  till  Cromwell's  Navigation  Act 
of  1651,  British  commerce  was  spreading  and  coming 
more  and  more  into  conflict  with  that  of  the  Dutch,  but 
there  was  no  actual  fighting.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  it 
was  during  this  period  of  increasing  tension  that  Riche- 
lieu also  attempted  (1628-1642)  to  develop  a  sea-powe 
for  France;  but  the  attempt  was  not  rooted  in  th' 
natural  activities  of  the  people,  and  the  policy  was  not 
persisted  in,  so  that  the  results  were  not  as  great  as 
might  have  been  expected. 

The  Navigation  Acts  declared  that  all  imports  into 
England  or  her  colonies,  which  had  been  gradually 
growing,  must  be  conveyed  exclusively  in  vessels  be- 
longing to  England  herself  or  to  the  country  in  which 
the  products  carried  were  grown  or  manufactured. 
This  was  a  challenge  to  the  Dutch,  and  war  with  Holland 
naturally  followed.  The  contest  for  the  supremacy  of 
the  sea  lasted  sixty  years,  and  four  phases  are  clearly 
marked. 

(i)  Britain  fought  against  Holland  alone. 

(ii)  Britain    fought    against     Holland    and    France 

allied, 
(iii)  Britain,  allied  with  France,  fought  Holland, 
(iv)  Britain,  allied  with  Holland,  fought  France. 

(i)  The  first  stage  lasted  from  1652  till  1665.  In  the 
first  war  under  the  Commonwealth,  Britain  had,  if  any- 
thing, slightly  the  better.  In  the  second,  under  Charles, 
Britain  was  on  the  whole  more  successful ;  but  her  real 
strength  was  brought  out  only  accidentally,  for  in  the 


172      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

autumn  of  1665,  notwithstanding  her  naval  successes, 
her  fleets  were  not  able  to  put  to  sea  on  account  of  the 
plague.  Then  the  difference  in  the  positions  of  Holland 
and  Britain  was  clearly  brought  out,  for  Britain  hired 
mercenaries  with  her  accumulated  energy  to  attack 
Holland  on  land. 

(ii)  This  led  to  the  second  stage  of  the  contest,  for 
the  Dutch  at  once  sought  French  aid  to  hold  the  land 
frontier;  but  this  stage  did  not  last  long — only  during 
1666  and  1667 — for  though  again  Britain  gained  more 
advantage  than  did  Holland,  yet  each  saw  that  France 
was  profiting  by  their  trade  losses;  a  peace  was 
patched  up,  and  even  an  alliance  was  formed  for  a  few 
years. 

(iii)  It  was  now  that  France,  under  Colbert,  made 
another  of  her  spasmodic  attempts  to  become  a  sea- 
power.  Organized  in  the  characteristic  centralized 
French  way,  the  production  of  home  commodities,  the 
building  of  ships,  and  the  establishment  of  colonies, 
were  so  co-ordinated  and  stimulated  that  France  bade 
fair  to  leap  to  the  front  as  a  sea-power ;  but  again  his- 
torical momentum  and  the  geographical  conditions  had 
their  effect.  On  the  one  hand,  the  people,  accustomed 
to  their  own  ways  of  living,  could  not  at  once  take  ad- 
vantage of  the  governmental  facilities,  and  on  the  other, 
the  geographical  conditions  again  tempted  the  govern- 
ment to  think  of  expansion  beyond  the  eastern  frontier, 
and  to  withdraw  these  facilities  before  they  had  produced 
much  effect.  Now  on  this  land  frontier,  approached  by 
the  easiest  way  out  of  France  to  the  north-east,  lay  the 
Netherlands  and  Holland.  Spain  was  weak,  the  Nether- 
lands, which  had  remained  Spanish,  fell  at  once  to 
France,    and    Holland    was    directly    menaced.     This 


BRITAIN  173 

seemed  to  suit  British  aims,  especially  as  France,  though 
her  fleet  had  become  of  more  importance,  was  not  a 
commercial  rival  of  Britain.  Thus  in  1672,  after  a  period 
of  strain  during  which  England  claimed  more  and  more 
authority  on  the  sea,  England  and  France  united  de- 
clared war  on  Holland.  In  the  course  of  it  Holland, 
largely  because  of  subsidies  paid  from  the  profits  of  her 
commerce,  was  aided  by  allies  who  took  off  the  pressure 
from  her  land  frontiers,  and  was  able,  because  of  the 
strength  of  her  fleet,  to  prevent  direct  invasion  from  the 
sea ;  but  the  need  for  those  subsidies  arose  from  the  fact 
that  Holland  was  small  and  open  on  the  land  side  to  a 
great  centralized  land-power,  and  on  the  sea  her  strength 
was  evidently  failing  before  that  of  the  sea-power  which 
had  no  land  positions  to  defend,  but  could  use  her  sub- 
sidies for  attack ;  for  when  Britain  withdrew  from  the  war 
in  1674,  the  supremacy  of  her  flag  was  recognized  from 
Finisterre  to  Norway.  The  advantage  to  Britain  did 
not  end  there,  for  as  a  neutral  during  the  remainder  of 
the  war,  which  lasted  till  1678,  the  carrying  trade  of  the 
Dutch  was  transferred  to  her  ships,  because  they  crossed 
the  sea  more  securely  than  did  those  of  Holland,  which 
were  still  menaced  by  the  French  privateers. 

France,  too,  by  deliberately  choosing  to  look  landward 
rather  than  seaward,  practically  allowed  Britain  a  free 
hand  on  the  sea.  Even  as  early  as  the  days  of  James  I. 
Britain  had  claimed  and  received  the  acknowledgment 
of  supremacy  over  France  at  sea ;  but  if  the  schemes  of 
Colbert  had  been  allowed  to  prosper,  and  the  advice  of 
Leibniz  taken,  the  geographical  advantages  of  position 
possessed  by  France  would  have  allowed  her  to  set  up 
a  sea  empire  that  it  would  have  been  impossible  for 
Holland  to  withstand  and  difficult  for  Britain  to  over- 


174      GEOGRAPHY    AND  WORLD   POWER 

come.  If  she  had  used  her  front  on  the  Mediterranean, 
where  there  was  now  no  sea-power,  to  dominate  Egypt, 
she  could  have  controlled  a  great  part  of  the  trade  of 
India  and  the  Levant;  she  would  have  been  compelled 
to  occupy  stations  on  either  side  of  Egypt,  and  would 
have  become  a  sea-power  more  important  than  Holland, 
and,  gradually  taking  the  place  of  her  weaker  ally  at 
home,  would  have  strengthened  her  position  there,  and 
made  herself  at  any  rate  a  serious  rival  to  Britain. 

(iv)  Thus  we  come  to  the  fourth  stage,  when,  with 
Holland  as  the  ally,  but  much  the  weaker  ally,  Britain 
ruined  the  navy  and  shipping  of  France.  This  lasted 
from  1688  to  1713,  during  which  time  France  was  also 
engaged  in  the  continental  struggles  of  the  Wars  of  the 
League  of  Augsburg  and  of  the  Spanish  Succession. 
Now  it  is  to  be  noticed  that  a  supreme  military  navy 
does  not  of  itself  give  sea-power.  At  the  beginning  of 
the  period  France  had  a  navy  superior  in  numbers  and 
equipment  to  the  combined  navies  of  Britain  and  Hol- 
land ;  what  she  lacked  was  the  sea  commerce  by  which 
energy  was  accumulated.  The  losses  which  Britain 
suffered  were  speedily  made  good,  while  there  was  such 
a  continuous  drain  on  the  resources  of  France  that  her 
ships  could  not  be  replaced ;  and  these  resources  drained 
away,  because  they  were  expended  on  fighting  on  her 
land  frontiers.  Britain  supplied  to  the  opponents  of 
France  the  subsidies  with  which  this  fighting  was  kept 
up.  Thus,  though  there  are  no  important  sea-fights 
after  the  first  year  or  so,  though  Britain  appears  to  have 
very  little  connection  with  the  affairs  on  the  Continent, 
yet  the  period  was  one  of  the  most  noteworthy  in  British 
history,  and  the  silent  pressure  exerted  by  her  increasing 
sea-power  was  the  important  factor  in  the  whole  struggle. 


BRITAIN  175 

Her  commerce  suffered  somewhat  from  French  priva- 
teers, but  the  losses  were  much  more  than  made  good  by 
the  enormous  increase  in  that  commerce,  with  the  profits 
of  which,  i.  e.  the  accumulated  energy,  Britain  was  able 
without  undue  strain  to  support  the  land  contest  till 
France  was  exhausted. 

During  the  struggle  Holland  finally  ceased  to  be  a  sea- 
power  at  all.  She  was  unable  to  make  good,  as  Britain 
did,  the  losses  of  her  navy,  for  her  resources,  like  those 
of  France,  were  exhausted  by  land  warfare,  and  she 
tended  more  and  more  to  lean  on  Britain  on  the  sea. 
She  gained  nothing  of  any  account  at  the  peace  of 
Utrecht,  and  her  carrying  trade  and  her  navy  were  gone. 
To  Britain  came  all  the  advantages  of  the  struggle. 
Her  commerce  had  been  greatly  increased :  this  was  her 
outstanding  gain.  She  obtained  control  of  the  trade 
of  Portugal,  while  the  cession  of  Gibraltar  and  Port 
Mahon  in  the  Mediterranean,  and  of  Newfoundland 
and  Nova  Scotia  across  the  Atlantic,  gave  her  new 
bases  from  which  to  extend  and  protect  her  trade. 

There  was  another  result  to  the  commerce  of  Britain 
which  followed  from  the  geographical  conditions  and 
the  use  that  was  made  of  them.  Not  only  could  com- 
modities be  carried  more  safely  by  her  vessels  than  by 
those  of  her  rivals,  so  that  the  carrying  trade  of  the 
world  gradually  came  into  her  hands,  but,  the  whole 
land  being  more  secure,  that  trade  was  managed  with 
greater  economy  of  energy  than  elsewhere. 

It  was  a  great  advance  in  civilization  when  metallic 
coin  took  the  place  of  barter.  The  things  to  be  ex- 
changed were  clumsy  and  difficult  to  carry,  and  it  might 
easily  happen  that,  though  one  man  had  more  surplus 
products,  yet  he  could  not  find  another  who  had  the 


176      GEOGRAPHY    ANT)    WORLD    POWER 

things  he  wanted  and  at  the  same  time  was  in  need 
of  those  products.  Metallic  coin,  acceptable  to  many 
people,  facilitated  exchange,  i.  e.  the  energy  of  produc- 
tion was  made  more  available. 

In  all  civilized  lands  now,  but  in  Britain  especially. 
a  further  advance  has  been  made.  Except  for  small 
retail  transactions  practically  no  coin  changes  hands. 
All  the  commerce  of  the  country  is  simplified  by  systems 
of  book  entries  by  banks,  by  which  a  man,  or  business, 
is  credited  with  the  possession  of  so  much  wealth  as  the 
value  of  so  much  work  done,  i.  e.  energy  expended. 
When  he  wishes  to  buy  anything,  he  transfers  by  writing 
a  cheque  assigning  this  to  someone  else,  who  in  his  turn 
may  transfer  it  again.  Now  all  this  is  possible  only  in 
a  country  which  is  secure,  where  men  trust  one  another, 
where  there  is  little  unnecessary  expenditure  of  energy. 
It  is  no  accident  that  the  Bank  of  England,  the  key- 
stone of  this  edifice  of  credit  or  trust,  was  established 
in  the  last  decade  of  the  seventeenth  century,  nor 
that  in  London  alone  in  all  the  world  is  one  certain 
of  obtaining  gold x  at  will  in  exchange  for  a  piece 
of  paper  which  shows  that  money  is  owed.  London 
became  and  remains  the  centre  of  the  commerce  of  the 
world  because  trade  could  be  organized  there  safely  with 
less  expenditure  of  energy  than  elsewhere. 

Thus  commerce  began  to  be  organized  on  a  large  scale 

about  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when 

and  because  Britain  had  become  the  sea-power.     The 

condition  of  things  at  the  time  of  the  South  Sea  Bubble, 

in  1720,  shows  on  the  one  hand  that  there  was  a  great 

1  Gold  is  in  a  sense  more  valuable  than  paper  money,  because 
its  artificial  value  is  more  widely  acknowledged,  not  because  it 
is  really  more  valuable  :  neither  gold  nor  paper  are  energy,  tbey 
are  merely  tokens. 


BRITAIN  177 

accumulation  of  surplus  energy,  i.  e.  capital,  in  the 
country,  and  on  the  other  that  beginnings  were  being 
made  in  organizing  that  capital  on  a  larger  scale,  this 
being  possible  because  security  was  great.  The  South 
Sea  Company  was  formed  in  1711,  before  the  end  of  the 
war,  and  owed  its  institution  to  the  fact  that  government 
wished  to  reduce  the  rate  of  interest  for  money  it  had 
borrowed.  It  was  another  attempt,  in  1719,  to  reduce 
still  further  the  rate  of  interest,  that  opened  people's 
eyes  to  a  way  of  increasing  their  money  by  using  it. 
The  Bubble  burst,  not  because  security  was  not  great — 
the  £100  shares  of  the  Company  never  fell  below  175 — 
but  because  the  element  of  trust  in  security,  which 
depended  on  command  of  the  sea,  was  quite  naturally 
but  unjustifiably  extended  to  things  with  which  the 
command  of  the  sea  had  nothing  to  do. 

During  the  eighteenth  century  the  supremacy  of 
British  trade  and  the  command  of  the  ocean  were  again 
and  again  challenged;  but  Britain  always  emerged 
from  the  struggle  with  extended  dominion  and  trade, 
and  only  from  the  American  War  with  serious  loss. 

France  and  Spain  from  1739  to  1748,  and  again  from 
1756  to  1763,  were  at  war  with  Britain  directly  or 
indirectly,  because  of  the  expansion  of  her  trade.  On 
each  occasion  these  countries  were  at  the  same  time 
engaged  in  continental  wars,  and  on  each  occasion 
Britain  supported  their  opponents  by  the  profits  of  her 
commerce,  so  that  their  resources  were  exhausted  by 
land  wars,  while  such  commerce  as  had  sprung  up  tended 
more  and  more  to  fall  to  Britain.  French  commerce 
had  been  growing  up  in  India  under  the  French  East 
India  Company,  in  Canada  and  in  the  West  Indies,  but 
it  was-  left  entirely  unsupported  by  a  navy,  and  these 

N 


178      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

lands  rapidly  became  either  British  altogether  or 
became  so  dominated  by  Britain  that  their  trade  was 
to  her  advantage. 

Hitherto  British  possessions  outside  the  British  Isles 
had  been  for  the  most  part  merely  trading-stations  or 
points  of  call  for  the  navy.  The  ideal  had  been  rather 
the  Phoenician  than  the  Roman;  trade,  not  conquest. 
But  there  had  been  gradually  growing  up  also  real 
colonies,  where  men  of  British  birth  had  settled  with 
no  intention  of  returning  to  their  native  land.  On  the 
eastern  seaboard  of  North  America  open  to  the  ocean, 
with  a  climate  more  extreme  indeed  than  that  of  Britain 
but  more  temperate  than  anywhere  else  on  the  east 
coast,  they  had  founded  a  New  England,  and  a  New 
Scotland  added  by  conquest  had  also  been  settled,  while 
southwards  and  westwards  stretched  the  beginnings  of 
New  York,  the  old  colony  of  Virginia,  and  the  newer 
colonies  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia.  As  these  had 
already  a  population  of  two  million  people  and  seemed 
to  require  room  for  expansion,  it  was  natural  that 
they  should  come  into  conflict  with  Frenchmen,  who 
had  entered  the  continent  by  way  of  the  great  river 
systems  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi,  and  who, 
though  fewer  than  one-twentieth  of  the  British,  were 
endeavouring  to  control  the  whole  vast  area  so  easily 
reached  by  these  magnificent  waterways.  Cut  off  from 
France  by  the  navy  of  Britain,  Canada  became  a 
British  dominion. 

In  India,  too,  along  with  rivalries  in  trade  there  had 
been  growing  up  a  rivalry  as  to  land  conquest,  but  un- 
supported by  a  fleet  the  French  aims  came  to  nothing. 
At  the  end  of  the  Seven  Years  War  France  was  indeed 
allowed  to  retain  her  trading-stations,  but  the  conquests 


BRITAIN  179 

passed  to  great  Britain,  and  even  the  trading-stations 
became  of  less  account  as  the  great  proportion  of  the 
trade  naturally  went  to  the  neighbouring  British  ports. 
Thus  by  1763,  partly  peacefully  as  colonies,  partly  as 
conquests,  great  areas  of  land  had  come  under  British 
rule,  and  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  had  become  in 
effect  the  British  Empire,  while  British  trade  was  still 
increasing. 

But,  just  as  mistakes  were  made  when  trade  suddenly 
expanded  at  the  time  of  the  South  Sea  Bubble,  so 
mistakes  were  made  with  regard  to  the  government  of 
the  colonies.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  these  lands 
required  more  from  Britain  than  they  sent  to  Britain; 
there  was  always  a  balance  of  trade  against  them.  In 
other  words,  energy  was  being  drained  away.  This 
required  to  be  made  up  in  other  ways.  It  was  made  up 
by  trading  illegally  with  the  Spanish  colonies  to  the 
south,  and  supplying  them  with  much-needed  products 
which  they  could  not  grow.  Irritation  was  started  by 
interfering  with  this  arrangement,  directly  by  forbidding 
the  illegal  trade  and  stopping  it  by  men-of-war,  and 
indirectly  by  requiring  the  colonies  to  contribute  taxes 
which  they  could  ill  spare  to  the  English  Exchequer. 
Though  the  incidence  of  these  taxes  eventually  became 
the  test  question,  it  was  the  stopping  of  the  trade  which 
began  the  trouble. 

By  this  time  France  had  realized  that  her  schemes  of 
land  expansion  had  always  been  thwarted  by  Britain's 
sea-power,  so  that  now,  when  Britain's  resources  were 
being  drained  by  a  land  war  on  the  American  continent, 
seemed  the  time  to  challenge  that  power  again ;  further, 
France  recognized  the  fact  that  on  the  sea  lay  Britain's 
strength,  and  refrained  from  becoming  entangled  in 


180      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD  POWER 

European  wars  which  Britain  endeavoured  to  excite. 
Thus  Britain  was  taken  at  a  disadvantage.  During 
years  of  peace,  too,  when  every  penny  not  spent  on 
obviously  commercial  pursuits  seemed  wasted,  the 
British  navy  had  been  allowed  to  become  weaker,  and 
when  war  was  declared  the  allied  fleets  of  France  and 
Spain  were  actually  superior.  Yet  even  so  Britain 
lost  only  1  the  American  colonies,  for  the  past  history — 
controlled  by  the  geography — counted.  In  the  one 
navy  there  was  a  sea  tradition,  which  was  to  boot 
largely  a  tradition  of  victory;  in  the  other  there  was 
an  unfamiliarity  with  the  sea.  Though  mistakes  were 
made  on  both  sides,  yet  the  farther-reaching  mistakes 
were  made  by  the  allies,  and  at  the  peace  in  1783 
Britain  obtained  remarkably  favourable  terms,  as 
France  was  again  suffering  from  financial  exhaustion. 
And  the  British  navy  not  only  had  a  naval  tradition 
behind  it,  but  a  tradition  of  advance  in  ability  to  use 
and  save  energy  on  the  sea.  British  seamen  had  learned 
more  of  the  art  of  sea-fighting  than  had  their  opponents. 
In  the  early  days  in  which  hand-to-hand  combat  was 
the  only  method  of  conducting  warfare,  fighting  on 
sea  was  much  the  same  as  fighting  on  land.  Opposing 
fleets  sailed  or  were  rowed  straight  at  each  other,  and 
just  as  the  compact  Greek  phalanx  drove  its  way  through 
the  opposing  army,  so  ships  close  together  brought  many 
men  together  to  attack  the  enemy  already  thrown  into 
confusion.  Familiarity  with  the  sea  and  conditions  on 
the  sea,  and  ability  to  handle  a  ship,  were  the  chief 
requisites  of  men  who  wished  to  fight  on  sea.  As  long 
as  the  contest  lay  between  seamen  and  landmen,  the 
supremacy  of  the  sea  went  to  the  seamen,  mainly  because 
1  There  were  Borne  exchanges. 


BRITAIN  181 

they  knew  the  sea  and  could  manage  ships.  The 
Spaniards,  as  we  have  seen,  were  not  really  seamen  at 
all,  and  were  overthrown  at  sea  by  the  Dutch  and 
English.  It  was  only  during  the  sixty  years  after  1653 
that  there  emerged  the  principle  of  sea-fighting  under 
the  conditions  that  then  existed,  by  which  the  advan- 
tage went  to  those  using  their  fighting  strength  most 
economically. 

A  ship  has  much  greater  length  than  width,  and  in 
the  days  when  ships  came  to  be  armed  with  a  great 
number  of  small  cannon,  more  cannon  could  be  pointed 
from  the  sides  of  a  ship  than  from  either  the  bow  or  the 
stern,  so  that  ships  could  attack  most  effectively  side- 
ways ;  while,  for  the  whole  of  a  fleet  to  be  most  effective, 
the  sight  of  the  enemy  had  never  to  be  interrupted  by  a 
friendly  ship.  Thus  ships  giving  battle  must  needs  be 
in  a  line  moving  at  right  angles  to  the  direction  of  fight- 
ing. In  order  that  this  line  should  be  equally  strong  at 
all  points,  only  ships  of  a  certain  strength  could  be 
allowed  in  it.  These  ships  were  the  line-of-battle  ships. 
Fighting  thus  became  something  different  from  going 
straight  at  an  enemy.  Wind  conditions  required  to  be 
taken  into  account,  even  more  than  before.  The  fleet 
to  windward  had  the  advantage  of  choosing  whether  or 
not  to  attack,  but  if  it  did  attack  it  was  at  a  certain 
disadvantage,  in  that  it  required  to  sail  straight  at  the 
enemy,  in  which  ca^e  few  cannon  could  be  used,  or  it 
came  into  action  gradually  and  the  first  ships  were 
greatly  damaged.  If  it  was  defeated  it  had  little  chance 
of  escape.  The  fleet  to  leeward  had  not  the  choice  of 
attack,  but  had  a  better  chance  of  escape,  and  while 
being  attacked  could  cripple  the  enemy.  It  is  significant 
that  even  in  the  war  of  American  Independence,  when 


182      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

France  was  attacking  Britain,  the  British  fleets  habitu- 
ally chose  the  windward  station  and  the  French  the 
leeward  station. 

This  characteristic  difference  of  action  was  not  an 
accident ;  it  was  due  to  the  fact  that,  partly  as  a  result 
of  greater  experience,  the  British  seamen  knew  more  of 
naval  warfare  and  of  the  principles  of  naval  warfare. 
Important  military  stations  are  chosen  on  land  because 
their  positions  are  advantageous  for  defence  or  attack. 
Some  lands,  like  Egypt  and  Chaldea,  are  naturally 
defended  by  deserts  or  marshes ;  cities  like  Rome  or 
Paris  are  at  positions  where  they  can  most  easily 
repel  attack.  But  on  the  sea  there  is  no  one  place  more 
easily  defended  than  another.  There  are,  in  the  military 
sense,  no  "  positions."  This  by  greater  experience  the 
British  seamen  had  learned.  They  had  learned,  too, 
consciously  or  unconsciously,  that,  as  a  result  of  this, 
the  best  defence  was  attack,  not  on  the  enemy's  coast, 
but  on  his  fleet,  wherever  it  could  be  found,  since  the 
fleet  afforded  the  only  means  by  which  Britain  might 
be  invaded.  They  had  learned  that  more  was  saved 
in  the  long  run  by  a  greater  expenditure  to  start  with ; 
while  Frenchmen  were  naturally  inclined  to  a  more 
cautious  policy,  to  keeping  fleets  in  harbour  when  not 
actually  required,  and  not  attacking  unless  sure  of 
victory.  The  one  endeavoured  to  increase  the  amount 
of  stored  energy  by  spending,  the  other  to  hoard  and 
save  what  was  already  stored.  Britain  had  found  that 
the  former  gave  the  better  results  in  commerce  and 
in  war. 

And  their  greater  experience,  too,  gave  them  a  better 
chance  of  finding  out  methods  by  which  attacks  might 
be  made  to  obtain  the  best  result ;  how  a  smaller  force 


BRITAIN  183 

might  defeat  a  larger  by  using  advantages  of  wind, 
or  of  the  momentum  of  ships  in  motion. 

The  War  of  American  Independence,  then,  came  to  an 
end,  mainly  because  the  resources — the  stored  energies — 
of  France  were  exhausted ;  and  this  was  no  new  thing, 
for  we  have  seen  that  there  had  been  for  a  century 
a  continual  drain  on  the  resources  of  France  without 
any  corresponding  supply.  The  government,  centralized 
in  Paris,  was  able  to  keep  up  appearances  by  forcing 
from  the  scattered  tillers  of  the  soil  the  supplies  that 
were  necessary,  but  this  had  only  made  them  the  poorer 
and  the  less  able  to  get  the  best  out  of  the  land,  so  that 
the  poorer  classes  in  the  towns  naturally  suffered  also 
from  want  of  food. 

When  this  state  of  affairs  at  length  resulted  in  revolu- 
tion, though  the  monarchy  was  overthrown  and  though 
the  constitutional  States-General,  turned  into  a  National 
Assembly,  lost  the  power  it  had  apparently  secured,  yet 
the  centralizing  power  of  Paris,  which  underlay  the 
original  centralized  power  of  the  king,  brought  about  a 
change  of  government  against  which  through  the  length 
and  breadth  of  France  there  was  no  revolt  that  had 
any  chance  of  success  ;  each  revolt,  whether  in  the  Rhone 
Valley,  in  Bordeaux,  in  the  Vendee,  or  in  Brittany, 
whether  against  Republicanism  as  such,  or  the  particular 
form  of  it  in  power  at  the  time,  was  isolated  from  the 
others  and  was  easily  attacked  and  put  down  from 
Paris. 

And,  again,  the  land  frontier  of  France  on  the  east 
controlled  the  external  policy.  The  desire  of  the  new 
government  was  at  first  not  so  much  land  for  dominion 
as  the  spread  of  the  new  ideas  of  Liberty,  Equality  and 
Fraternity ;  but  the  aim  was  more  and  more  lost  in  the 


184      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

method,  so  that  land  expansion,  at  first  the  method  by 
which  ideas  were  to  be  materialized,  became  in  the  end 
the  aim  itself.  "  The  French  system,"  said  the  govern- 
ment, "  is  to  be  extended  to  all  countries  occupied  by 
her  armies  "  ;  but  the  idea  of  the  extension  of  the  French 
system  was  lost  in  the  attempt  to  occupy  the  countries 
by  her  armies.  In  this  attempt  the  old  conditions  con- 
trolled the  issue,  for  the  countries  most  easily  occupied 
lay  beyond  the  eastern  border  of  France. 

At  first  under  the  driving  force  of  the  whole  French 
people,  and  later  under  the  magnificent  leadership  of 
the  greatest  general  of  modern  times,  France  bade  fair 
to  subdue  the  continent  entirely,  and,  had  there  been  no 
ocean  power,  it  is  almost  certain  that  France  would  have 
dominated  the  world  for  many  years,  but  always  the 
ocean  power  of  Britain  met  and  cheeked  her.  By 
means  of  her  fleet  and  the  old  method  of  paying  to  her 
allies  money  amassed  by  commerce,  Britain  hindered 
the  expansion  of  France,  and  Napoleon,  on  whom  the 
direction  of  affairs  gradually  fell,  came  to  see  clearly 
that  Britain  and  British  commerce  were  his  real 
enemies. 

In  the  further  struggle  four  distinct  phases  are  clearly 
marked,  and  in  each  the  importance  of  Britain's  ocean 
commerce,  the  result  of  her  ocean  power,  is  obvious. 

(i)  Napoleon  at  first  thought  that  India  was  the 
source  of  British  commercial  supremacy,  of  her  wealth  and 
resistance.  Thus  after,  with  consummate  skill  in  diplo- 
macy and  war,  subduing  separately  between  1795  and 
1797  many  little  minor  states  in  Italy  and  on  the  Adriatic 
shores,  and  establishing  little  republics  on  the  French 
model,  he  made  in  1798  a  descent  on  Egypt,  while  yet 
some  French  ships  of  war  were  left  him.     He  thoroughly 


BRITAIN  185 

subdued  and  organized  that  old  land,  and  attempted 
even  to  reach  and  conquer  the  other  old  land  of  Chaldea. 
By  these  conquests  he  hoped  to  set  up  stepping-stones 
from  which  to  advance  on  India.  Meantime,  Britain 
had  apparently,  and  to  some  extent  actually,  lost  much 
by  the  French  conquests  on  the  southern  shores  of 
Europe,  by  which  she  was  cut  off  from  bases  for  her 
fleet.  Now,  however,  she  sent  a  fleet  back  under  Nelson, 
who  after  a  six  weeks'  hunt  through  the  whole  Eastern 
Mediterranean,  in  absolute  ignorance  of  Napoleon's 
plans  and  movements,  found  the  French  fleet  in  Aboukir 
Bay,  and  in  an  hour  or  two  Napoleon  was  cut  off  effec- 
tually from  Europe.  Between  September  9,  1798  and 
February  5,  1799,  he  did  not  receive  even  a  dispatch. 
His  plans  of  conquest  eastward  were  fruitless,  because 
he  could  not  leave  Acre  in  his  rear  unsubdued,  and,  aided 
by  no  more  than  two  ships  of  the  line,  it  withstood  his 
attacks.  He  himself  escaped  secretly,  but  his  army  was 
shut  away  from  all  military  movements  till  allowed  to 
leave  just  before  the  temporary  peace  of  1801. 

(ii)  Then  Napoleon  endeavoured  to  strike  British 
commerce  in  the  North  of  Europe.  Commerce  with 
Holland  and  with  the  Rhine  had  been,  of  course,  checked 
before  this,  but  farther  east  the  Weser,  the  Elbe  and 
the  Baltic  had  remained  open,  as  the  states  which  used 
these  waterways  were  far  removed  from  France,  and 
had  remained  neutral.  As  neutrals  their  ships  were 
safe,  and  there  was  a  tendency  on  that  account  for  trade 
to  go  in  their  ships,  but  in  the  attempt  to  prevent  France 
from  accumulating  any  resources,  Britain  claimed  that 
neutral  states  should  not  aid  France  by  carrying  her 
trade  for  her,  nor  by  bringing  to  France  such  things  as 
would  help  her  to  rebuild  her  navy — most  of  these,  such 


186      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

as  timber  and  hemp,  coming  from  the  Baltic.  Thus 
there  was  a  source  of  discontent,  and  Napoleon,  on  his 
return  from  Egypt,  and  after  defeating  with  masterly- 
strategy  the  armies  opposed  to  him  in  Central  Europe, 
so  worked  on  this  discontent  as  to  rouse  these  northern 
powers  of  Europe — Prussia,  Denmark,  Russia  and 
Sweden — to  unite,  in  December  1800,  in  an  Armed  Neu- 
trality, to  oppose  Britain's  claims  by  force  if  need  be. 
Britain  was  thus  left  alone  in  Europe  to  face  France. 
But  the  destruction  of  the  Danish  fleet  at  Copenhagen 
and  the  murder  of  the  Czar,  attempted  because  of  the 
restriction  of  the  Russian  trade,  brought  about  the  break- 
up of  the  Armed  Neutrality;  each  of  the  states  saw 
that,  notwithstanding  restrictions,  its  interest  was  better 
served  in  the  circumstances,  i.  e.  more  energy  was  ac- 
cumulated, by  acceding  to  British  claims  and  continuing 
their  trade.  Thus  by  the  end  of  1801  Britain  was  again 
friendly  with  all  the  states  of  Europe  except  France. 

Napoleon  had  again  pushed  troops  to  the  South  of 
Italy  in  another  attempt  to  reach  Egypt,  but  the  attempt 
was  again  vain,  for  Britain  still  had  command  of  the 
sea.  Even  Napoleon  was  desirous  of  peace.  The  pre- 
liminaries were  signed  in  October  1801,  and  the  Treaty 
of  Amiens  in  March  1802,  but  Napoleon  still  thought 
that  "  England  alone  cannot  contend  against  France," 
and  his  obvious  intention  to  disregard  the  terms  of  the 
treaty  led  to  a  renewal  of  the  war  in  1803. 

(iii)  Since  the  attacks  on  Egypt  and  on  British  trade 
in  the  North  of  Europe  had  been  unsuccessful,  Napoleon 
resolved  to  strike  direct  at  the  heart  of  Britain.  This 
was  really  the  only  elective  attack,  but  the  ques- 
tion was  whether  or  no  it  was  possible.  While  pre- 
parations were  being  made  for  this  invasion,  the  older 


BRITAIN  187 

methods  of  attack  were  attempted.  Troops  were  again 
pushed  to  the  south  of  Italy.  This  was  futile,  as  Britain 
still  had  control  over  the  sea.  Hanover  was  occupied 
by  troops,  and  the  mouths  of  the  rivers  Ems,  Weser  and 
Elbe  closed.  Even  Cuxhaven  was  occupied  by  troops 
to  stop  the  trade  of  Britain  with  the  Elbe.  This  was 
done  without  the  consent  of  the  states  through  which 
these  troops  went.  Napoleon  knew  now  that  his  one 
foe  was  Britain;  the  others  did  not  really  matter,  and 
the  strength  of  Britain  lay  in  the  fact  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  make  the  peoples  of  these  other  states  his 
enemies  in  order  to  reach  Britain. 

As  regards  the  invasion  itself,  a  great  army  of  100,000 
men  was  to  be  carried  across  to  Britain.  For  this, 
ordinary  transports  were  out  of  the  question.  There 
were  not  enough  in  the  whole  of  France ;  the  commerce 
of  France  had  been  destroyed.  Nor  could  they  be  built ; 
the  supplies  of  timber,  etc.,  were  stopped.  There  was 
no  harbour  space  if  they  were  built,  and  if  they  could  be 
used  troops  could  only  slowly  be  disembarked  from 
them  on  the  English  side.  The  projected  invasion  had 
perforce  to  be  made  in  an  enormous  number  of  small 
boats,  which  could  be  beached  quickly  together,  so  that 
troops  might  land  at  once  in  sufficient  force  to  over- 
come any  army  that  could  be  brought  against  them. 
These  might  cross  in  a  fog  or  calm,  when  battleships 
could  not  move — and  Napoleon  took  care  to  emphasize 
this  fact — yet  it  made  success  much  more  likely  if,  for 
a  comparatively  few  hours,  the  French  could  hold  the 
Straits,  and  in  his  own  mind  he  determined  that  it  was 
necessary  to  have  the  support  of  an  adequate  fleet. 

But .  this  attempted  blow  at  Britain  also  came  to 
nothing,  because  the  different  detachments  of  the  new 


188      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

French  fleet,  built  with  much  labour  in  the  different 
protected  harbours  of  Fiance,  were  never  given  a  chance 
to  unite  into  a  compact  body  powerful  enough  to  protect 
the  flotilla  of  small  boats  collected  with  much  difficulty 
at  Boulogne.  For  by  this  time  Britain  had  made  a 
further  advance  in  the  knowledge  of  naval  warfare,  and 
had  found  that  the  best,  i.  e.  the  cheapest,  defence  of 
her  shores  and  her  trade  lay  in  preventing  the  French 
fleets  from  coming  out  of  their  harbours,  where,  in  the 
"  saving  "  French  way  they  tended  to  be  kept,  prevent- 
ing the  men  becoming  accustomed  to  the  sea;  while 
the  British  seamen,  scarcely  leaving  their  ships  for  years 
— Nelson  never  left  his  flagship  for  two  whole  years — 
were  hardened,  toughened,  and  so  trained  in  the  manage- 
ment of  ships  that,  when  it  came  to  be  a  question  of 
handling  ships  in  battle,  they  were  easily  superior. 

Thus  from  the  very  beginning  of  the  war  in  1803 
the  French  harbours  were  blockaded.  Some  squadrons 
did  escape,  but  these  escapes  could  never  be  timed  so 
that  there  could  be  any  union  in  sufficient  numbers  to 
hold  the  Straits,  nor  with  sufficient  secrecy  to  elude  the 
British  ships,  which  immediately  followed.  The  key 
to  the  whole  situation  was,  however,  at  Brest,  where 
Napoleon's  main  fleet  was  shut  up  by  Cornwallis,  who 
never  for  a  moment  gave  it  a  chance  to  escape.  The 
advantage  of  thus  blockading  the  ports  depended  from 
a  strategic  point  of  view  on  another  difference  which 
then  existed  between  the  sea  and  the  land.  On  the 
land,  except  in  impassable  deserts,  there  are  men  almost 
everywhere,  and  an  army  cannot  move  for  any  distance 
without  its  presence  being  known,  while  on  the  sea,  and 
especially  on  the  ocean,  a  fleet  may  sail  long  distances 
without  anyone  being  able  to  find  out  what  its  move- 


BRITAIN  189 

merits  are.  We  have  had  an  example  of  this,  even  in 
the  Mediterranean,  when  Napoleon  sailed  for  Egypt. 
The  West  Indies,  then,  because  of  their  being  across  the 
ocean,  were  at  first  chosen  to  be  the  scene  of  the  union 
of  the  detached  squadrons  of  the  French  fleet,  but  the 
holding  of  the  detachments  within  their  harbours  forced 
Napoleon  to  attempt  to  unite  his  vessels  in  the  Bay  of 
Biscay,  where  the  union  would  be  known  and  suitable 
disposition  of  the  British  ships  made.  Villeneuve, 
indeed,  did  escape  from  Toulon  with  one  of  the 
squadrons,  and  reached  the  West  Indies,  but  he  was 
joined  by  none  of  the  other  divisions.  Instead  he  was 
followed  at  once  by  Nelson,  who  knew  so  well  what 
the  effect  of  such  a  pursuit  would  be,  that  he  not  only 
divined  that  Villeneuve  would  at  once  return,  but  even 
the  route  by  which  he  would  return.  Choosing  another 
route  by  which  he  utilized  the  westerly  winds  to  greater 
advantage,  Nelson  was  in  European  waters  with  his 
fleet  to  await  the  French.  Villeneuve  made  one  last 
attempt  to  unite  with  the  Brest  fleet,  but  his  heart 
failed  him,  and  he  sailed  south  to  Cadiz.  Then  Napoleon 
saw  that  an  invasion  of  Britain  was  hopeless,  and  moved 
his  long- waiting  troops  from  Boulogne. 

It  was  not  till  three  months  after  the  danger  of  in- 
vasion was  practically  over  that  the  Battle  of  Trafalgar 
was  fought.  It  was  fought  because  Villeneuve  had 
failed;  he  was  superseded,  and  learning  the  fact  before 
the  arrival  of  his  successor,  who  was  to  take  the  fleet 
again  to  the  Mediterranean,  he  determined  to  run  all 
risks  and  take  the  fleet  through  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar 
himself.  But  Nelson  was  waiting,  and  by  destroying 
a  large  part  of  the  French  fleet  prevented  a  recurrence 
of  the  threat  of  invasion. 


190      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

Thus  the  sea  was  used  as  a  defence  by  the  men  who 
knew  it  against  those  who,  like  Villeneuve,  felt  that  they 
were  not  as  familiar  with  it  as  were  their  opponents,  or 
v  those  who,  like  Napoleon,  were  unable  to  understand 
the  peculiar  conditions  of  sea  warfare;  and  Britain  for  a 
century  was  not  even  threatened  by  invasion. 

(iv)  Napoleon,  then,  was  unable  to  carry  an  army 
across  the  Channel,  and  had  to  attempt  to  conquer  the 
ocean  by  the  land.  To  do  this  all  the  world  that  counted 
must  be  united  against  Britain,  and  he  set  himself 
to  reduce  Europe  to  his  will.  Even  by  the  date  of 
Trafalgar,  his  troops  were  far  into  the  heart  of  Europe, 
and  a  few  days  longer  saw  Austria  at  his  feet.  Prussia 
succumbed  by  the  end  of  1806. 

The  struggle  then  at  last  became  a  question  of 
r  sources — of  accumulated  energy.  Napoleon  endea- 
voured to  shut  out  Britain  from  all  profits  to  be  made 
in  the  markets  of  the  Continent ;  even  ships  not  British 
which  came  from  Britain  were  to  be  seized.  Britain 
attempted  to  shut  out  France  and  her  conquests  from 
all  traffic  on  the  sea,  except  such  as  had  come  from  a 
British  port  and  had  paid  duty  to  her.  In  1807  the 
British  design  was  the  most  successful,  for  Napoleon  was 
engaged  in  bringing  Russia  into  line  with  the  other 
European  states,  and  soldiers  could  not  be  spared  to 
enforce  the  French  edicts ;  while  the  fleets  of  Denmark 
and  Portugal  were  withdrawn  under  British  persua- 
sion before  these  lands  were  finally  coerced  by  French 
troops. 

When  Napoleon  at  last  gained  control  of  all  Europe 
but  Sweden  and  Turkey,  the  position  of  Britain  seemed 
much  more  hopeless,  but  she  only  declared  that  all 
foreign  trade  must  be  through  Britain,  and  that  dues 


BRITAIN  191 

must  be  paid;  this  she  enforced  by  means  of  her  fleet. 
Thus  not  only  was  Britain  strengthened  by  taking  a 
percentage  of  all  external  European  trade,  but  she 
tended  to  weaken  Napoleon  in  two  ways.  In  the  first 
place,  it  was  to  the  interest  of  the  peoples  of,  at  any  rate, 
the  northern  European  lands  to  trade  with  Britain, 
even  under  the  British  restrictions;  traffic  did  take 
place,  and  Napoleon  alienated  the  sympathies  of  these 
peoples  by  stopping  the  illegal  trade  by  means  of  his 
troops.  In  the  second  place,  it  was  the  need  which 
Napoleon  felt  of  preventing  British  trade  with  the 
North  of  Europe  that  compelled  him  to  spread  his  best 
soldiers  all  along  a  fifty-mile-wide  belt  of  coast  there, 
and  prevented  him  sending  sufficient  force  to  repel  the 
English  military  attack  on  the  Peninsula. 

He  was  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma.  If  he  withdrew 
his  troops  from  Northern  Europe  to  oppose  Britain  in 
Spain,  then  Britain  continued  to  renew  her  resources 
by  trade  in  the  north.  If  he  kept  his  troops  in  the  north 
— as,  in  fact,  he  did — he  had  not  enough  men  to  drive 
the  British  out  of  Portugal.  His  resources  of  men  were 
scattered,  and  could  effect  little.  France  became  poorer 
and  poorer;  all  commodities  became  dearer  as  they 
were  brought  nearer  to  France,  for  they  were  more  easily 
imported,  and  therefore  cheaper,  as  the  distance  from 
France  increased. 

Even  the  military  attack  under  which  Napoleon  fell 
was  directly  due  to  the  policy  forced  on  him  by  the  fact 
that  Britain  was  a  defended  island  open  to  the  ocean; 
for  Russia,  far  removed  from  France,  while  agreeing  to 
exclude  British  shipping,  would  not  agree  to  exclude 
British  goods  brought  by  other  vessels.  This  was  fatal 
to  Napoleon's  plans;   a  quarrel  ensued;   the  disastrous 


192      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

expedition  to  Russia  followed.  The  governments  of 
Prussia  and  Austria,  supported  by  the  whole  people, 
took  courage  again.  Napoleon  continued  to  lose  ground, 
for  his  energies,  human  and  material,  were  exhausted; 
finally  the  allies  entered  Paris,  and  the  game  was  up. 
Ocean  power  had  proved  too  strong. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE   FOREST 

I.  Russia 

In  the  last  two  chapters  we  have  seen  how  the  dis- 
covery of  the  ocean  stimulated  the  minds  of  those 
who  dwelt  on  the  outer  rim  of  Europe,  and  how  those 
peoples  were  enabled  to  utilize  the  advantages  afforded 
by  the  discovery,  so  that  the  natural  units  bordering 
the  ocean  became  of  importance.  The  stimulus  either 
started  the  crystallization  of  those  units,  or  greatly 
hastened  the  process  and  strengthened  the  result. 
This  discovery  of  the  ocean  b)^  the  Western  nations, 
and  all  that  it  entails,  followed  quite  naturally  from 
contact,  on  the  one  hand,  with  the  tribes  of  the  plain, 
and,  on  the  other,  with  the  Arabs  and  those  whom  the 
Arabs  had  converted  to  Islam. 

Before  continuing  the  story  further,  however,  we 
must  look  back  and  consider  how  other  states  of  Europe 
came  to  take  their  places  among  the  Powers.  To 
understand  this  we  must  notice  yet  another  important 
geographical  control,  "  The  Forest,"  and  its  character- 
istics. There  are  many  kinds  of  forest,  but  they  are 
all  alike  in  several  respects.  (1)  They  cannot  be  easily 
traversed;  but  they  can  be  more  easily  traversed  by 
small  bands  or  by  single  men  than  by  large  bands,  by 
men  on  foot  than  by  men  on  horseback ;  thus  they  differ 
o  193 


194      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

essentially  from  grasslands,  where  we  have  seen  movement 
is  easy  in  all  directions,  and  where  there  is  a  certain  ad- 
vantage in  living  and  moving  in  considerable  numbers. 
(2)  The  forest  may  be  cleared  in  parts,  and  settlements 
made,  protected  by  the  surrounding  forest,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult under  primitive  conditions  to  make  large  settlements 
quickly;  if  the  forest  supplies  natural  fruits,  there  is 
little  reason  for  making  settlements  or  inducement  to 
accumulate  possessions.  (3)  Agriculture  rather  than 
pastoral  pursuits  will  be  practised  in  those  settlements ; 
the  existence  of  forest  implies  that  there  are  no  great 
periods  of  drought  throughout  the  year,  and  thus  that 
crops  may  be  cultivated,  and  more  made  of  the  soil 
than  is  possible  in  a  dry  grassland.  (4)  As  a  result, 
population  will  be  rather  small  and  scattered,  and  such 
agricultural  communities  as  exist  will  tend  to  be  clannish 
and  distrustful  of  strangers. 

Thus  the  conditions  of  life  are  different  from  any  of 
those  which  we  have  heretofore  noticed.  In  none  of 
the  lands  where  early  civilization  flourished,  is  there  a 
great  amount  of  rain,  nor  do  trees  grow  in  such  numbers 
as  to  affect  movement  to  any  extent,  or  to  afford 
protection  to  settlements  in  clearings. 

Now  the  great  plain  of  the  world,  though  it  appears 
to  be  one  on  a  map  showing  relief,  is  really  divided 
into  two  parts,  according  to  the  presence  or  absence 
of  forest.  The  northern  and  north-western  part  of  the 
plain,  coming  under  the  influence  of  the  westerly  winds, 
is  somewhat  damper  than  the  more  southern  and 
eastern  part.  Being  cooler  in  summer,  also,  there  is 
less  evaporation.  Thus,  although  the  southern  and 
eastern  portion  can'  produce  only  grass,  the  northern 
and  western  part  is  a  forest  land.     Pine  forests  cover 


RUSSIA  195 

those  areas  which  have  a  dry  winter  cold,  but  decidu- 
ous trees  predominate  in  the  more  temperate  western 
section  south  and  south-west  of  the  Baltic.  Here, 
then,  is  a  vast  area  difficult  to  traverse,  difficult  to 
govern,  difficult  to  unite  in  one  coherent  whole,  so 
that  it  is  comparatively  late  in  history  ere  it  becomes 
of  importance. 

It  has  been  noted  that  among  the  tribes  whose  move- 
ments became  evident  at  the  time  of  the  break-up  of 
the  Western  Empire  were  the  Slavs.  The  movement 
of  these  people,  like  that  of  the  German  tribes,  was 
due  to  pressures  from  farther  east,  rather  than  to  any 
desire  of  movement  on  their  own  part,  or  stimulus  from 
their  immediate  surroundings,  and  it  is  not  likely  that 
they  moved  far.  However  that  may  be,  they  even- 
tually settled  in  the  area  lying  between  the  Baltic  on 
the  north  and  the  Balkan  lands  on  the  south,  partly 
on  the  plain,  partly  on  hilly  land.  They  have  thus 
been  cut  in  two  by  the  later  inroads  of  the  nomads 
from  the  east,  who  kept  to  the  central  grasslands. 
The  Southern  Slavs,  left  on  the  hills,  we  have  already 
spoken  of;  it  is  with  the  Northern  Slavs  in  the  forest 
that  we  are  here  concerned. 

In  this  forest  land  of  the  Northern  Slavs  nomad 
pastoral  peoples  find  conditions  which  are  unfamiliar 
to  them,  and  with  which  they  do  not  know  how  to  cope. 
Here  the  Avars  and  the  other  nomads  never  came,  and 
the  Northern  Slavs  found  some  measure  of  protection 
in  clearings  comparatively  easily  made  among  the 
pines.  Separate  and  isolated  communities,  however, 
and  situated  far  to  the  north  out  of  touch  with  the 
stimulating  influences  which  had  developed  round  the 
Mediterranean,  they  naturally  were  long  in  taking  their 


196      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

place  in  the  civilized  world,  and  the  first  stimulus  came, 
as  might  be  expected,  from  the  sea. 

About  800,  as  the  result  of  the  expansion  of  the  great 
German  Empire  to  which  we  shall  presently  refer,  the 
inhabitants  of  what  are  now  Denmark  and  Soandinavia 
had  been  stimulated  into  activity.  Charles  the  Great's 
conquest  of  the  Saxons  had  forced  the  attention  of 
these  northern  peoples  to  be  directed  southward.  The 
minds  of  some  were  fired  by  desire  for  plunder;  others 
had  visions  of  northern  kingdoms  where  there  had  been 
but  small  communities,  but  these  communities  were 
small  and  isolated  because  food  could  not  be  obtained  in 
any  considerable  amount  in  any  one  place ;  the  younger 
men  were  accustomed  to  the  idea  of  leaving  the  parental 
home ;  they  were  all  accustomed  to  danger  and  hardship 
in  obtaining  the  necessaries  of  life  from  sea  or  land.  They 
were  accustomed  to  thinking  and  acting  for  themselves, 
and  by  themselves,  or  with  a  few  supporters ;  many 
could  lead  and  comparatively  few  could  be  led.  There 
was,  then,  for  two  centuries  an  exodus  in  all  directions 
of  these  Norsemen  or  Normans,  exploring,  fighting, 
settling,  giving  dynasties  to  England  and  other  states. 

At  first  destructive  in  all  the  older  lands,  their  influence 
on  the  less  civilized  areas,  where  dwelt  the  Northern 
Slavs,  was  constructive  from  the  first.  Novgorod,  the 
centre  most  easily  reached  by  these  seamen,  took  pre- 
eminence over  all  the  other  forest  settlements,  and  the 
area  which  owed  allegiance  to  the  ruler  in  Novgorod 
gradually  grew  greater,  till  Russia  extended  southward 
to  the  parkland  on  the  edge  of  the  forest.  Further  it 
did  not  extend,  but  here  it  was  within  touch  of  Byzantine 
civilization  and  the  Greek  Church,  so  that  the  people 
were  influenced  by  both. 


EUSSIA 


197 


Internal  divisions  natural  in  forest  regions,  where 
communication  is  difficult,  caused  the  state  to  split  up 
in  the  eleventh  century,  and  sometimes  one,  sometimes 
another  of  the  minor  states  was  pre-eminent,  but  the 
tie  connecting  them,  as  we  might  expect,  was  but  slight. 
Later,  they  passed  to  a  greater  or  les  s  extent  under  the 


THE   POSITION   AND   EXTENT   OF   MUSCOVY. 

The  map  shows  the  position  and  extent  of  Muscovy  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  the  relation  of  the  state  to  the  forest  area. 

control  of  the  Mongols.  Even  these  terrible  people, 
however,  horse-riders  as  they  were,  failed  to  penetrate 
to  the  old  centre  of  Novgorod,  and  here  in  the  forest 
there  always  remained  the  nucleus  of  Russia,  as  the 
nucleus  of  Spain  remained  in  the  Pyrenees  among 
surroundings   unfamiliar   to   the   horse-riding   Moham- 


198      GEOGRAPHY   AND  WORLD   POWER 

medans.  With  the  decay  of  Mongol  rule  there  grew  up, 
stimulated  by  the  unconquered  Russia  to  the  north, 
near  the  borders  of  the  forest,  but  still  within  the 
forest,  the  state  of  Muscovy  round  the  centre  of  Moscow, 
which  might  act  as  an  intermediary  between  the  Mongols 
without  and  the  Russians  within  forced  to  unite  by  the 
external  pressures.  Eventually,  throwing  ofl  the  yoke 
of  Mongol  rule,  Muscovy  became  the  centre  for  a  real 
independent  centralized  Russia  in  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  After  one  strong  central  government  had  been 
established,  it  did  not  take  long  to  realize  that  the  power 
of  the  steppe  people  lay  in  their  union  and  mobility,  but 
that  their  very  mobility  might  be  a  source  of  weakness, 
as  it  arose  from  the  fact  that  they  had  no  definite 
centre.  If  a  centralized  settled  power  could  organize  a 
mobile  force  to  meet  these  nomads,  they  could  at  least 
be  brought  into  control.  This  Russia  did ;  within  fifty 
years  the  greater  part  of  the  steppeland  of  what  is  now 
Southern  Russia  was  organized  under  Russian  rule,  and 
by  the  end  of  the  seventeenth  century  this  rule  was  ex- 
tended over  the  vast  plains  of  Central  Asia,  which  till 
then  had  been  a  menace  to  all  the  civilizations  on  the 
border  lands.  Elements  which  had  been  disturbing  to 
civilization  during  the  whole  of  history  were  finally 
removed  and,  further,  were  so  organized  as  to  become 
sources  of  energy,  not  means  of  its  destruction. 

Here,  then,  is  Russia  organizing  the  whole  plain  from 
the  forest  land  to  the  North ;  thereafter  allowing  the 
gradual  settlement  of  those  areas  where  the  nomads 
had  swept  the  land  bare;  bringing  into  cultivation  by 
means  of  irrigation  lands  where  pastoral  peoples  could 
find  but  scanty  herbage  for  their  flocks ;  driving  railways 
over  a  land  void  of  stone  and  therefore  without  the 


GERMANY  199 

possibility  of  making  roads ;  and  centralizing  the  whole 
life  of  many  varied  peoples  in  Moscow  rather  than 
Petrograd. 

Occupying  this  central  land  of  Euro- Asia,  the  great 
continent,  Russia  is  cut  off  from  the  ocean,  except 
on  the  useless  frozen  North,  and  the  external  policy  of 
the  country  for  two  centuries  has  consisted  in  attempting 
to  reach  the  open  ocean;  now  by  the  Gulf  of  Finland 
through  the  Baltic,  now  by  the  Bosporus  and  the 
Mediterranean,  now  across  Afghanistan  or  Persia,  now 
southward  from  her  far  eastern  borders  on  the  Pacific ; 
but  till  the  present  time  without  great  success,  for  west- 
wards states  had  crystallized  earlier  into  stable  forms, 
and  southwards  and  eastwards  there  lies  the  great  and 
almost  impassable  mountain  barrier.  But  with  vast 
areas  capable  of  supporting  great  populations  and  yet 
vacant,  with  a  territory  even  now  so  organized  as  to  be 
practically  self-sufficing,  occupying  the  heart  land  of  the 
old  world,  and  breeding  men  who  must  be  brave  and 
hardy  to  stand  her  climate,  Russia  is  not  yet  at  the  end 
of  her  resources,  and  is  obviously  another  of  the  Powers 
of  the  modern  world. 

II.  Germany 

There  remains  yet  the  north  central  area  of  penin- 
sular Europe,  which  is  roughly  Germany.  Here  the  geo- 
graphical conditions  are  most  complex,  and  naturally 
the  historical  conditions  are  not  less  so. 

(i)  The  most  obvious  geographical  fact  is  that  the 
area  is  central,  and  not  central  merely  in  the  sense  that 
the  great  plain  is  central.  That  has,  indeed,  land  on 
all  sides  except  the  north,  but  it  has  been  so  cut  off 
by  great  highland  areas  from  all  the  lands  that  mattered 


200      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD  POWER 

on  east  and  west  that,  though  from  time  to  time 
the  tribes  from  the  plain  penetrated  to  these  margin 
lands,  there  has  been  practically  no  reverse  action  till 
Russia  emerged  from  the  western  forest.  Even  Russia 
during  the  greater  part  of  her  history  has  been  influenced 
by  only  three  external  stimuli  :  the  Norsemen  from  the 
north-west,  the  Byzantine  civilization  and  Church  from 
the  south-west,  and  the  tribes  from  the  south-east.  The 
central  heart  land  of  Northern  Europe  has  been  influenced 
by  many  stimuli  from  different  directions,  (a)  It  has 
been  influenced  by  all  the  varied  stimuli  which  originated 
in  the  civilized  lands  to  south  and  west,  from  the  time 
of  the  Roman  Empire  onwards,  (b)  It  has  been  in- 
fluenced, not  once  but  many  times  and  in  many  ways, 
by  the  stimuli  proceeding  from  the  sea  to  the  north  and 
the  ocean  beyond  the  sea.  (c)  It  has  been  influenced 
by  stimuli  from  the  east,  not  by  the  tribes  from  the 
plain  alone,  but  by  the  barbarians  from  Asia  Minor. 
The  stimuli  have  not  acted  once  or  twice  merely,  as  in 
the  case  of  Russia,  but  almost  continually  from  the  time 
of  Rome,  and  have  been  continually  changing  their 
forms. 

(ii)  The  relief  is  very  complicated.  The  western  end 
of  the  plain  just  comes  to  the  open  sea.  South  of  this 
tongue  of  plain  the  land  rises,  but  there  are  considerable 
areas  sunk  below  the  general  level,  some  comparatively 
narrow  valleys,  others  that  may  be  called  plains,  like 
that  which  stretches  from  Bale  to  north  of  Frankfort, 
and  through  the  greater  part  of  the  length  of  which 
flows  the  Rhine.  In  contrast,  there  are  highlands  of 
greater  or  less  extent  and  elevation,  like  the  Black 
Forest  or  those  which  surround  Bohemia.  These  relief 
units  vary  greatly  in  size.     They  are  not  all  small  like 


GERMANY  201 

those  of  Greece,  but  large  and  small  they  result  in  a 
diversity  of  modes  of  life  which  does  not  make  for 
unity. 

(iii)  This  diversity  of  life  is  not  all ;  there  is  a  diversity 
in  Italy,  but  heights  and  lowlands  in  peninsular  Italy 
are  so  arranged  that  Rome  forms  a  natural  centre.  In 
the  heart  land  of  Northern  Europe  there  is  no  one  centre 
comparable  to  Rome  in  the  definitely  marked  peninsula 
of  Italy,  much  less  comparable  to  Paris  or  London. 
Rome  may  not  be  an  ideal  centre  for  modern  Italy,  but 
there  is  no  other  that  can  be  compared  with  it.  In 
Germany  there  are  many  centres,  but  no  one  which 
under  all  circumstances  is  more  important  than  the  rest. 
Under  varying  conditions,  and  when  the  area  has  been 
subjected  to  varying  stimuli,  sometimes  one,  sometimes 
another  has  been  of  most  account,  but  has  never  be- 
come so  pre-eminent  as  to  acquire  so  much  historic 
momentum  as  under  new  conditions  would  still  ensure 
that  it  would  remain  the  centre.  Frankfort  in  the 
north-west,  Munich  in  the  south-west,  Vienna  in  the 
south-east,  Berlin  in  the  north-east,  have  each  in  turn 
been  found  satisfactory  centres  for  a  time. 

(iv)  In  early  times  the  forest,  within  which  Russia 
began,  also  spread  over  the  northern  plain  and  a 
considerable  part  of  the  highland  to  the  south.  While 
it  remained,  it  helped  to  keep  communities  apart,  and, 
like  all  the  other  geographical  conditions  already 
mentioned,  it  fostered  the  tendency  to  disruption. 
This  forest  was  left  almost  in  its  natural  state  for  a 
longer  period  in  the  east  than  in  the  west,  with  the 
result  that  the  west  became  organized  some  considerable 
time  before  the  east. 

(v)  On  the  whole,  this  is  a  much  colder  land  in  winter 


bJft' 


o 


#A   FROZEN    ON THE 


rguTAVERAG^  DURING  THE 
WriOtE    OF    JANUARY 


THE    ROMAN    EMPIRE    AND    THE    WINTER   COLD. 

The  Romans  avoided  excessive  cold. 


202 


GERMANY  203 

than  any  except  the  plain  of  which  we  have  spoken. 
All  the  other  lands  know  of  cold,  but  continuous  cold 
is  exceptional.  In  Germany,  and  especially  in  East 
Germany,  the  land  remains  frozen  for  considerable 
periods. 

Thus,  with  no  definite  centre,  ringed  round  by  all 
the  peoples  who  have  mattered,  with  many  different 
characteristics  in  many  parts,  peopled  by  men  with 
many  different  views  of  life,  open  to  external  stimuli 
from  all  directions  which  have  reacted  differently  on 
each  unit,  this  heart  land  of  peninsular  Europe  has 
been  one,  only  when  the  government  has  been  strong. 

It  was  left  outside  the  Roman  Empire  partly  because 
the  forest  was  difficult  to  penetrate  in  force  and  difficult 
to  govern,  partly  because  the  land  was  colder  in  winter 
than  that  to  which  the  southern  European  was  accus- 
tomed. Hence  the  communities,  Teutonic  in  the  west, 
Slavonic  in  the  east,  though  they  lived  more  or  less  inde- 
pendently in  their  forest  clearings,  were  yet  influenced 
for  some  centuries  by  that  Empire  from  which  filtered 
ideas,  not  the  least  the  idea  of  central  government,  and 
such  tangible  products  of  civilization  as  clothing  and 
arms. 

With  the  weakening  of  the  Roman  power  and  the  pres- 
sure of  the  tribes  from  the  plains,  the  Teutonic  peoples 
were  the  first  to  be  partly  tempted,  partly  forced  into  the 
lands  that  had  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  Rome 
and  were  comparatively  rich  because  the  Pax  Romana 
had  allowed  wealth  to  accumulate.  The  Saxons  crossed 
the  seas  to  Britain ;  the  Franks,  without  moving 
altogether  from  their  homeland  round  the  modern 
Frankfort,  acquired  power  in  Gaul;  the  Burgundians 
migrated  to  the  Rhone  Valley ;    while  Goths,  Vandals 


204      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD  POWER 


and  Lombards  overran  various  portions  of  the  Mcditer- 
ranian  shorelands.  The  latter  tribes  were  sooner  or 
later  lost  among  the  peoples  whom  they  conquered  for 


btfc2>  M      )  A\ 


i 


THE   POSITION    OF   FRANKFORT. 

Four  great  routes  converge  on  Frankfort. 

a  time,  but  the  Franks,  who  had  not  all  left  their  old 
home  and  the  conditions  with  which  they  were  familiar, 
were  able,  while  gaining  much  from  their  proximity  to 
the  Empire,  to  retain  many  of  their  old  manners  and 


GERMANY  205 

customs.  Notice  the  position  of  the  homeland  of 
the  Franks;  it  was  situated  in  that  part  of  the  Rhine 
Valley  which  lies  round  the  towns  of  Mainz  and  Frank- 
fort. Here  is  a  piece  of  land  fertile  and  comparatively 
warm,  with  lowlands  through  which  movement  is  easy 
stretching  in  four  chief  directions  —  north-westward 
down  the  Rhine  gorge  to  the  open  plains  of  the  Lower 
Rhine  and  the  Delta,  north-eastward  through  the 
Wetterau  to  what  is  now  Hanover  and  was  then  Saxony, 
eastward  by  the  valley  of  the  Main  and  so  to  the  Danube 
and  Bavaria,  and  southward  up  the  Rhine  Valley  to 
Swabia.  It  is  not  accident  that  those  Franks,  partly 
within,  partly  without  the  Empire  were  the  first  of  the 
Teutonic  peoples  to  set  about  the  organization  of  that 
land  which  had  not  yet  really  mattered.  By  way  of 
the  Lower  Rhine  the  Franks  spread  first  in  the  direc- 
tion of  Roman  civilization  in  Gaul,  and  then  extended 
their  power  in  other  directions  over  the  neighbouring 
Teutonic  peoples  not  so  centrally  placed  as  themselves. 
Twice  did  the-  independent  eastern  Franks  establish  a 
state  partly  in  Gaul,  partly  in  Germany,  once  under 
Clovis  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  power,  and  later, 
when  the  first  had  become  decadent,  Pippin,  Charles 
Martel,  Pippin  II.  and  Charles  the  Great,  again  from 
the  eastern  homeland,  re-established  the  state  on  a 
stronger  basis  than  ever.  Christianized  by  the  Roman 
Church,  defeating  under  Charles  Martel  the  Saracen 
assault  on  Western  Europe,  the  Franks  became  the 
champions  of  Christendom;  and,  recognized  as  such  by 
the  Pope,  who  had  inherited  what  was  left  of  the  authority 
of  Rome,  they  set  up  another  Empire  which  owed  a 
great  part  of  its  power  to  that  recognition.  Charlemagne 
greatly  strengthened  this  Empire  and  extended  it  south- 


206      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

wards  to  take  in  the  Pyrenees  and  Lombardy,  as  well 
as  eastwards  and  south-eastwards.  But  these  exten- 
sions were  sources  of  weakness.  In  the  first  place,  the 
expansion  brought  the  Prankish  power  into  touch  with 
the  Scandinavians,  and  a  stimulus  was  given  to  the 
outward  movement  of  the  Scandinavian  peoples  and  to 
the  attack  by  the  heathen  Norsemen  on  all  the  coasts 
of  peninsular  Europe,  so  that  for  a  time  Christendom 
was  hemmed  in  on  all  sides  by  enemies.  Further,  as 
long  as  the  Frankland  in  the  Rhine  Valley  was  the  only 
area  that  mattered  outside  what  had  been  the  Roman 
Empire  of  the  west,  the  Franks,  strong  and  virile,'  were 
almost  certain  to  take  the  lead,  but  when  what  had  been 
other  lands  with  their  many  different  conditions  were 
brought  into  the  civilized  world,  an  additional  impetus 
was  given  to  the  formation  of  minor  states.  Even 
before  the  time  of  Charlemagne  the  natural  tendency 
to  division  between  Gaul  and  the  land  of  the  Franks 
had  shown  itself;  while  Charlemagne  lived  and  for  a 
short  time  after  his  death  the  Frankish  Empire  remained 
whole,  but  in  a  few  years  it  fell  apart,  first  into  three 
and  then  into  four  parts,  two  of  which  corresponded  to, 
but  did  not  coincide  with,  the  modern  France  and 
Germany;  the  others  being  Burgundy  and  Northern 
Italy,  the  essential  part  of  which  was  Lombardy. 
Burgundy  and  Lombardy  were  again  united  to  the 
German  area  in  a  later  form  of  the  Empire,  but  the 
essential  part  of  Burgundy — the  Saone-Rhone  Valley — 
eventually  became  incorporated  in  France,  while 
Northern  Italy  long  remained  within  the  Empire,  and 
suffered  with  it  from  the  lack  of  centralization. 

The  natural  tendencies  to  separation  exhibited  by 
areas  with  different  geographical  and  therefore  different 


GERMANY  207 

historical  conditions  is  shown  more  strikingly  still  within 
the  German  area  by  which  the  title  of  Empire  was  re- 
tained because  it  held  within  it  what  had  been  the 
German  or  Frankish  centre  of  government. 

(i)  On  the  extinction  of  the  Carolingian  line,  no  one 
power  was  able  to  succeed  the  Franks  and  dominate 
the  rest.  Eventually  a  compromise  was  arrived  at : 
the  selection  of  an  emperor  was  left  in  the  hands  of 
Electors.  The  organization  of  Germany  into  a  whole 
has  been  greatly  retarded  because  the  tendencies  to 
disruption,  partly  geographical,  partly  historical,  which 
produced  the  condition  that  led  to  the  establishment 
of  Electors,  gained  additional  weight  thereby  ;  for 
it  was  on  the  one  hand  an  acknowledgment  of  this 
lack  of  unity,  and  also  a  guarantee  that  organized  dis- 
union should  continue.  An  emperor  elected  by  the 
goodwill  of  rulers  of  other  states  equal  or  superior  in 
importance  to  his  own,  was  emperor  only  on  sufferance, 
and,  the  central  power  being  thus  weakened,  the  Empire 
could  for  the  most  part  be  an  empire  only  in  name. 
For  a  time  one  man  or  one  family  was  able  to  dominate 
the  rest,  so  as  to  procure  election  and  rule  strongly; 
but  this  ability  to  rule  depended  not  so  much  on  his 
being  emperor  as  on  his  having  power  as  an  independent 
ruler,  and  his  having  shown  it  by  his  election.  The 
electoral  college  remained  through  the  centuries ;  some 
of  the  electors  ecclesiastical,  representing  old  forces 
under  new  conditions,  some  secular,  representing  in 
some  sort  the  greater  natural  units,  dividing  the  actual 
power  between  them  and  leaving  only  a  semblance  to 
the  nominal  power. 

To  the  Franks,  then,  succeeded  the  Saxons,  to  the 
Saxons  the  Hohenstaufen   or    Swabian  House;    then, 


208      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

after  as  interval  during  pari  of  which  no  emperor  was 
elected  at  all,  the  Hap.sburg  or  Austrian  House  became 
predominant  in  the  first  half  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
and  held  this  predominance  till  a  hundred  years  ago. 
Prussia  finally  took  the  lead.  Each  emperor  ruled,  as 
far  as  he  did  rule,  from  his  ancestral  home.  We  have 
seen  that  there  is  no  natural  centre  in  Germany  com- 
parable to  London  or  Paris.  Thus  the  emperors  were 
not  forced,  as  were  the  English  kings,  to  rule  from  a 
particular  centre.  In  Britain  and  in  France  there  have 
been  different  dynasties,  but  there  has  been  no  manner 
of  doubt  as  to  where  the  centre  of  government  has  been 
since  Winchester  gave  place  to  London  and  Laon  to 
Paris.  James  came  all  the  way  from  Scotland  to  be 
king  in  London.  London  and  Paris  have  tradition  be- 
hind them.  In  Germany  not  only  is  there  no  natural 
meeting-place,  but  the  very  fact  that  rule  has  taken 
place  from  different  centres  implies  that  there  is  no 
continuous  tradition  in  any  one,  and  yet  that  several 
have  historic  claims  to  being  considered  the  govern- 
mental centre  of  Germany. 

(ii)  Further,  the  method  by  which  an  emperor  was 
supposed  to  make  his  rule  effective,  on  the  one  hand 
was  determined  by  the  existence  of  tendencies  to  divi- 
sion, and  on  the  other  emphasized  these  tendencies 
still  further.  There  was  no  imperial  taxation  to  pro- 
vide troops,  who  should  see  that  the  emperor's  commands 
were  obeyed  either  within  or  without  the  empire. 
Instead,  the  feudal  system  was  developed  to  a  greater 
extent  here  than  elsewhere;  this  system  depended  for 
its  successful  working  on  a  method  of  division  and 
subdivision.  Theoretically,  the  great  landholders — the 
electors  among  them — were  bound  to  supply  troops  for 


GERMANY  209 

the  service  of  the  emperor;  practically,  they  learned 
to  use  their  troops  for  their  own  purposes,  and  even  on 
occasion  against  the  emperor.  Thus  the  system  added 
no  strength  to  the  position  of  a  weak  emperor. 

A  nominal  supporter,  who  supported  a  ruler  only 
because  he  was  weak,  was  certain  to  fail  him  at  a  critical 
time.  But  it  was  not  only  the  emperor  who  suffered. 
The  greater  lords  depended  in  turn  for  supply  of  troops 
on  the  minor  lordlings  who  owed  allegiance  to  them,  and 
just  as  the  greater  lords  failed  in  their  duty  to  the 
emperor,  so  did  the  smaller  landholders  sometimes  fail 
in  their  duty  to  their  superiors.  The  extent  to  which 
the  subdivision  was  effective  depended  on  particular 
circumstances  of  time  and  place,  and  on  the  character 
of  rulers,  but  the  final  result  was  that  the  Empire  of  the 
Middle  Ages  was  made  up  of  practically  independent 
states  of  all  sizes  from  that  of  a  single  town  to  that 
composed  of  the  far-spreading  territories  of  a  really 
powerful  lord. 

(iii)  At  first,  from  the  tenth  to  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century  the  tendencies  to  disruption  were  not 
so  marked,  and  under  stern  Saxon  and  Hohenstaufen 
emperors  the  Empire  was  strong.  One  reason  for  this 
was  the  existence  of  another  condition  which  at  first 
made  for  unity,  but  which  later  aided  these  disruptive 
tendencies.  This  was  the  authority  of  the  Pope  and  of 
the  Church.  We  have  seen  that  it  was  largely  because 
of  the  recognition  by  the  Pope  of  the  Frankish  kings  as 
champions  of  Christendom  that  they  became  emperors. 
It  was  largely  because  the  Pope  continued  to  recognize 
the  emperors  that  these  emperors,  Frankish,  Saxon  and 
Swabian,  retained  their  power.  Time  and  again,  when 
the  Saxon  Henrv  and  the  Hohenstaufen  Frederick  dared 


210      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   TOWER 

to  defy  the  Pope,  their  power  fell  from  them  because 
the  people  believed  in  the  Pope,  and  he  whom  the  Pope 
did  not  recognize  could  not  have  authority.  Later, 
when  the  other  forces  making  for  disintegration  had 
become  stronger,  the  Reformation  found  the  Empire 


EDKOPB  :     RELIGIONS. 

The  northern  and  western   portion  of  Germany  Is  Protestant : 
the  southern  and  eastern  portion  is  Roman  Catholic. 

rent  in  pieces.  There  was  not,  as  there  was  in  England 
and  in  France,  an  effective  central  authority  which 
eventually  determined  the  general  result,  and  Germany 
was  left  partly  Lutheran  Protestant,  partly  Roman 
Catholic,  in  a  condition  which  again  strengthened  the 


GERMANY  211 

differences  which  already  existed  and  the  tendency  to 
disruption. 

(iv)  A  fourth  cause  of  division  resulted  from  the 
method  under  which  the  Empire  took  shape.  Extensions 
of  territory,  made  outside  the  Empire  by  individuals 
or  by  states,  did  not  in  general  enlarge  the  borders  of 
the  Empire  itself;  they  belonged  to  those  states  or  in- 
dividuals who  had  made  them  their  own.  The  knights 
of  the  Teutonic  Order  organized  East  Prussia,  but  East 
Prussia  remained  outside  the  Empire  and  was  related 
only  to  Brandenburg  to  give  additional  importance  to 
the  Elector.  Hungary  was  regained  from  the  Turk  by 
the  Duke  of  Austria,  who  became  its  King,  but  as  King 
of  Hungary  he  owed  no  allegiance  to  the  Emperor. 
Later,  the  Elector  of  Hanover  became  King  of  Britain, 
but  Britain  did  not  become  part  of  the  Empire.  This 
acquisition  of  extra-imperial  territory  gave  to  those 
rulers  power  which  was  quite  independent  of  the  Em- 
peror, and  obviously  tended  at  first  to  disruption;  but 
herein  lay,  in  fact,  the  seeds  of  such  unity  as  Germany 
has  hitherto  attained. 

On  the  other  hand,  though  there  was  a  certain  loss  of 
energy  due  to  this  lack  of  effective  government,  itself 
due  to  the  geographical  conditions,  there  was  an  advance 
in  saving  energy.  From  the  time  of  the  Franks,  when 
the  Teutonic  lands  were  being  civilized,  the  advance 
was  evident ;  great  territories  were,  to  use  a  phrase  used 
often  before,  brought  within  the  circle  of  lands  that 
mattered ;  the  border  lands  or  marks  became  states,  and 
formed  bases  from  which  to  energize  other  mark  lands 
farther  and  farther  east.  Government  by  the  Franks  was 
comparatively  easy  as  long  as  the  Franks  were  evidently 
the  superior  people.     The  Saxons  and  Swabians  were 


•212      <;K<m;|:  M'lIV    AND    WORLD    POWER 


in  a  somewhat  Bimilai  almost  unchallenged  position, 
but  it  was  nalural  that  (he  decentralizing  tendency 
should  grow  greater  when  the  mark  lands  became  more 
and  more  able  to  stand  alone,  because  they  contained 


GERMANY  :  LANGUAGE. 

The  same  language  is  spokon  throughout  Germany,  but  there  are 
differences  betwoen  north  and  south. 

a  greater  population,  because  that  population  was  not 
so  scattered  and  isolated  as  it  had  been,  and  because 
they  formed  states  that  became  the  equals  of  their 
civilizers  to  the  west.  Thus  even  the  increasing  ten- 
dency to  decentralization  of  government  is  in  part  a 
result  of  advance. 


GERMANY  213 

Further,  there  was  a  feeling  of  Unity  which  was  in- 
tensely real.  This  was  due  partly  to  the  possession  of 
a  common  language,  partly  to  the  persistence  of  the 
Imperial  Idea,  and  partly  in  the  earlier  centuries,  as 
we  have  seen,  to  the  existence  of  a  common  Church. 
In  so  far  as  it  was  due  to  the  latter  two  causes,  the 
feeling  of  unity  spread  beyond  the  boundary  of  empire, 
and  permeated  the  whole  of  Christendom  hemmed  in 
between  the  Mohammedan  and  the  heathen  Norseman, 
whose  attack,  indeed,  made  it  more  intense.  It  found 
expression  in  the  enthusiastic  support  given  to  the 
Crusades,  and  in  the  growth  of,  and  friendly  relations 
between,  many  universities.  The  more  purely  German 
sense  of  unity  is  shown  in  the  rise  and  federation 
of  trading  cities.  The  divisions  were  governmental; 
territories  were  divided  among  the  sons  of  a  ruler ;  they 
were  united  by  marriage  with  an  heiress.  There  was 
waste,  because  of  the  lack  of  that  security  which  a  strong 
government  enforces,  but  there  was  not  anarchy;  men 
were  gradually  learning  how  to  make  the  most  of  them- 
selves, and  energy  was  being  accumulated.  It  is  signi- 
ficant of  the  disruptive  tendencies  that  in  the  northern 
plain,  far  from  the  nominal  centre  of  government,  the 
Hansa  towns  should  have  become  independent,  like 
Brunswick  and  Magdeburg  inland,  like  Hamburg, 
Lubeck  and  Stettin  on  the  coast  as  ports,  or  even  like 
Wisby  and  Bergen  overseas  as  outpost  factories;  but 
it  is  equally  evident  that  the  advantages  of  unity  were 
recognized,  for  these  towns  formed  a  federation;  while 
the  fact  that  trade  cannot  be  carried  on  at  all  without 
energy,  without  saved  energy,  and  without  saving  energy, 
is  evidence  of  advance. 

Now  let  us  consider  how  Germany  has  made  a  further 


214      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 


advance,  and  saved  more  energy,  by  becoming  effectively 
organized  politically.  Because  of  the  way  in  which  the 
Empire  was  governed,  with  no  provision  for  an  imperial 
force,  it  had  little  and  ever-decreasing  chance  to  ex- 
pand its  borders.  New  territories  could  not  easily  find 
a  place  in  the  state,  but  after  the  Empire  had  taken 


LANDS   REACHED   BY   CHRISTIANITY   ABOUT   1000   A.D. 

All  the  southern  shores  of  the  Baltic  were  still  heathen. 

shape,  Christianity  continued  to  spread,  south-eastwards 
among  those  who  had  come  as  heathen  from  the  distant 
grasslands  of  Asia,  and  eastwards  among  the  dwellers 
in  the  forest ;  but  the  lake-dotted  moraine  land  made  the 
southern  shores  of  the  Baltic  more  difficult  of  approach, 
and  these  were  left  heathen  for  centuries.  Thus  three 
quite  distinct  regions  lay  between  the  Roman  and  Roman- 
Catholic  Empire  of  the  West  and  the  Byzantine  and 


GERMANY  215 

Greek  Church  civilization  of  the  East :  Hungary,  within 
the  Carpathian  highlands,  peopled  by  the  mixed  race 
resulting  from  the  union  of  all  the  steppeland  peoples 
who  had  threatened  Europe,  yet  christianized  from 
Rome  and  bound  to  Western  civilization  by  that  fact ; 
Poland,  centred  in  Warsaw  but  with  no  natural  frontiers, 


THE  THREE  NATURAL  AREAS  TO  THE  EAST  OF  THE  EMPIRE. 

peopled  by  Slavonic  tribes  within  the  forest,  who  united 
under  the  stimulus  of  attack  from  the  west  and  of  con- 
version under  the  influence  of  missionaries  from  the 
Western  Church ;  and,  lastly,  Pomerania  and  Lithuania, 
lands  of  the  heathen  to  the  north  and  east. 

The  longer  these  regions  remained  outside  the  Empire, 
the   more   difficult    their  inclusion   within  it   became. 


216      GEOGRAPHY  AND    WORLD   POWER 

Bohemia,  a  natural  region  easily  governed  from  Prague 
and  inhabited  by  Slavonic  peoples,  was  included  within 
the  Empire,  while  Poland,  farther  to  the  east  and  less 
easily  reached,  was  organized  only  just  in  time  to  prevent 


TOLAND. 

The  only  area  common  to  ancient  and  modern  Poland  is  a  district 
including  Warsaw. 

its  inclusion,  though  claims  were  indeed  made  for  cen- 
turies to  consider  Poland  as  a  fief,  and  the  western 
portion  of  the  first  Polish  state  became  almost  at  once 
tributary  to  Germany. 

These  territories,  then,  on  the  one  hand  were  always 


GERMANY 


217 


a  menace,  greater  or  less,  to  the  eastern  frontier,  and  on 
the  other  allowed  of  the  chance  of  expansion  as  a  result  of 
their  conquest,  not  by  the  Empire  but  by  states  within 
the  Empire.     It  is  thus  no  accident  that  while  the  earlier 


RELATIONS    OF   WARSAW   TO   THE   RIVER   SYSTEMS. 

Poland  is  essentially  the  area  centred  on  Warsaw.  Before  roads 
were  made,  rivers  were  of  extraordinary  importance.  The  river- 
ways  of  Poland  converge  on  Warsaw. 

centres  of  Germany  lay  in  the  west,  the  later  powers 
were  centred  in  the  east.  The  eastern  menace  either 
prevented  disruption  or  brought  about  union  in  the 
face  of  a  common  danger,  while  the  chance  of  expansion 


218      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

was  seized  on,  and  states  grew  larger  by  extension 
eastwards  to  include  lands  outside  the  Empire.  In 
particular,  two  states,  Prussia  and  Austria,  gradually 
became  pre-eminent,  based  respectively  on  the  northern 
plain  and  on  the  higher  land  to  the  south  of  it.  The 
latter  developed  first,  and  from  it  was  made,  by  Charles 
V.,  an  attempt  which  just  failed  of  success  in  organizing 
this  heart  land  of  peninsular  Europe ;  the  former  took 
longer  to  develop,  but,  under  Prussia,  Germany  has 
at  last  achieved  such  a  unity  as  had  not  hitherto  been 
hers,  though  even  now  Austria  remains  outside  the 
political  organization. 

Austria. — The  map  shows  how  there  stretches  across 
Europe  the  great  belt  of  highland  formed  by  the  Alps 
and  Carpathians,  unbroken  except  for  a  short  distance 
at  one  place,  and  hence  crossed  with  difficulty  except 
at  this  one  place  where  the  two  mountainous  areas 
approach  one  another.  To  this  passage,  then,  there 
must  come  by  far  the  greater  number  of  those  who  wish 
to  pass  from  one  side  of  the  highland  to  the  other, 
whether  in  peace  or  war,  and  on  this  small  area,  Vienna 
and  the  surrounding  land,  routes  must  converge.  Here  a 
stand  could  be  made  against  the  horse-riders  from  the 
south-east,  and  from  here,  when  these  were  subdued, 
expansion  was  possible.  It  marked,  in  the  first  instance, 
a  convenient  and  natural  limit  of  the  Empire,  to  which 
it  came  to  be  of  extraordinary  importance.  In  the  face 
of  common  danger,  this  area  and  the  lands  to  the  north- 
west were  more  likely  to  unite,  and  the  ruler  of  this  area 
was  bound  to  be  a  man  of  importance  in  the  Empire. 
It  is  thus  no  wonder  that  the  House  of  Hapsburg — the 
House  of  Austria — held  the  imperial  crown  for  centuries 
almost  by  right.     Further,  partly  by  marriage,  but  still 


GERMANY 


219 


more  by  conquest,  Hungary  was  added  to  the  dominions 
ruled  by  the  head  of  the  House  of  Austria,  and  gave  him 
additional  authority.  Because  of  a  marriage  he  became 
the  heir  to  the  throne  of  Hungary ;  because  the  Turks 
at  last  destroyed  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire  and 
overran  Hungary,  the  Hapsburgs  gradually  drove  them 
back,  and  in  regaining  the  land  for  Christendom  made 
it  effectively  their  own,  so  that  when  Napoleon  finally 


THE   POSITION   OF   VIENNA. 

brought  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  to  an  end,  there 
remained  the  state  of  Austria-Hungary  centred  in 
.Vienna,  a  capital  from  which  many  different  parts  might 
be  easily  governed. 

Of  the  eastern  states  of  Germany  Austria  developed 
first,  because  the  menace  from  the  south-east  was  more 
obvious  and  more  insistent  than  that  from  any  other 
direction.  This  was  due  to  two  causes  :  the  existence 
of  the  Eastern  Roman  Empire,  and  all  the  momentum 


220      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

of  civilization  in  the  south-east  were  of  influence  in 
bringing  into  existence  organized  communities  within 
the  circle  of  the  Carpathians  and  Balkan  highlands;  and 
further,  the  land  in  which  these  communities  lived  was 
si  ill  semi-steppe,  and  lay  open  to  other  nomadic  hordes 
from  farther  east  until  Russia  emerged  from  her  forest 
and  barred  their  passage.  Thus  the  attack  from  the 
south-east  was  more  often  renewed  and  more  serious, 
because  better  organized,  than  the  attack  from  any  other 
quarter,  and  it  was  natural  that  a  state  should  arise 
here  to  withstand  that  attack. 

Prussia. — The  menace  of  the  forest  and  marshland 
between  the  Carpathians  and  the  Baltic  was  never 
serious ;  movement  was  just  as  difficult  in  these  lands  as 
it  w-as  easy  over  the  steppe,  so  that  there  was  no  need  to 
hold  the  north-eastern  frontier  strongly.  In  a  sense,  in- 
deed, it  was  the  south-eastern  menace  which  first  brought 
some  kind  of  importance  to  the  north-eastern  frontier. 
It  was  the  attack  of  the  Magyars  which  stimulated  the 
abilities  of  Henry  the  Saxon  and  his  son  Otto  the  Great, 
and  the  Saxons,  having  acquired  power  and  become 
trained  in  organization,  endeavoured  to  use  the  results 
of  their  training  in  other  directions,  so  that  the  North 
Mark  was  organized  about  930  and  the  bishopric  of 
Brandenburg  instituted  about  the  middle  of  the  century. 
Following  this,  an  attempt  was  made  to  Christianize 
the  heathen  Prussians  farther  east  about  1000.  It  was, 
however,  a  failure,  and  it  was  not  till  the  crusading  idea 
began  to  permeate  Christendom  that  a  real  advance  was 
made.  About  1200,  colonists  and  missionaries  again 
visited  Eastern  Prussia,  but,  as  things  did  not  go  well, 
the  aid  of  the  Teutonic  knights  was  invoked.  They 
organized  and  christianized  the  country,  and  under  their 


GERMANY  221 

rule  Germans  settled  in  the  land,  but  it  was  Poland 
which  was  suzerain,  not  the  Empire,  even  when,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  state  became  a 
secular  Duchy  under  a  Hohenzollern  who  had  been  the 
grand  master  of  the  order.  Not  even  when  the  Elector 
of  Brandenburg  succeeded  to  the  Duchy  a  century  later, 
did  he  become  an  independent  ruler  of  Prussia;  it  re- 
quired a  real  attack  from  the  north-east  to  consolidate 
the  state.  This  attack  came  from  Sweden.  Out  of 
this  contest  Prussia  emerged  independent ;  Poland  was 
weakened,  and  Saxony,  whose  Elector  had  been  King 
of  Poland,  finally  lost  importance. 

Meanwhile,  the  Reformation  struggle  had  come  while 
the  land  was  still  disunited.  Austria  under  the  Haps- 
burgs,  bound  to  Rome  by  historical  and  geographical 
ties,  upheld  the  ancient  Catholic  religion ;  the  northern 
plain,  more  naturally  one  than  the  highland  south, 
albeit  never  yet  effectively  united,  and  more  open  to 
help  from  without,  became  and  remained  Protestant. 
The  natural  differences  between  north  and  south  were 
intensified.  Political  rivalry  took  the  place  of  religious 
zeal,  and  Prussia  and  Austria  became  definitely  opposed. 
A  struggle  naturally  followed  in  which  Prussia  gained 
what  Austria  lost.  The  climax  came  in  1870  when 
Prussia,  having  defeated  Austria  four  years  before, 
finally  controlled  the  northern  plain  and  united  all 
Germany  against  France,  and  the  modern  German 
Empire  took  sha,pe  under  a  dominant  Prussia,  including 
all  German-speaking  lands  except  Austria  and  the 
land  at  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine,  which  had  won  its 
independence  after  the  discovery  of  ocean  trade. 

Here,  then,  is  Germany ;  a  modern  state  occupying  the 
central  position  in  Europe,  having  the  advantage  of  a 


\s 


a  o 


222 


GERMANY  223 

central  position  as  long  as  she  is  really  strongly  ruled ; 
equipped  with  an  army  and  able  to  defend  herself  from 
a  land  attack,  ruled  with  no  doubt  as  to  the  central 
authority  and  the  power  of  the  central  authority ;  for  the 
first  time  since  the  days  of  Charles  the  Great  ruled  from 
Brandenburg  in  Prussia ;  ruled,  that  is  to  say,  for  the  first 
time  from  a  land  in  touch  with  the  sea,  the  land  of  the 
Hanseatic  League,  the  land  which  formed  the  old  Anglo- 
Saxon  base ;  Germany  is  naturally  then  forced  or  tempted 
to  seek  her  destiny  on  the  ocean,  to  develop  sea-power,  to 
use,  as  did  Macedonia  and  Rome,  an  army  and  a  navy. 
The  state  is  centred  at  Berlin  in  Brandenburg  on  the 
cross-road  between  the  valleys  of  the  Oder  and  Elbe,  at 
a  point  where  the  natural  east  and  west  road  through  the 
northern  plain  meets  the  old  road  from  the  Oder  mouth 
to  the  ancient  Frank  base.  It  was  organized  late,  and 
therefore  on  more  modern  lines,  with  less  of  old  machinery 
to  scrap  than  Italy  or  France  or  Spain  or  even  Britain, 
or  rather  with  no  doubt  but  that  the  old  machinery  must 
be  scrapped.  It  has  rulers  who  at  last  understand 
that  Germany  is  one,  and  must  be  made  to  recognize 
the  fact.  Achieving  her  destiny  at  the  time  when  the 
Industrial  Revolution  was  having  its  effect,  she  con- 
structed railways  to  radiate  impartially  in  all  directions 
from  Berlin,  and  make  Berlin  as  inevitably  the  geographic 
centre  of  Germany  as  is  London  of  Britain  or  Paris  of 
France,  so  that  the  land  was  forced  to  become  a  strategic 
and  economic  unit.  Industry  was  organized  so  that 
energy  should  be  most  easily  saved ;  learning  was  organ- 
ized so  that  men  may  be  taught  how  best  to  save  energy 
and  how  best  to  look  for  new  ways  of  saving  energy. 
Great  things  are  made  with  the  energy  of  her  coal  mines ; 
small  things  are  made  with  the  least  expenditure  of 


221       CKOCII  AIM  IV    AND    WORLD   POWER 


human  energy,  and  jei  <1<>  their  work  in  the  best  way. 
"  Made  in  Germany,"  instead  of  being  a  reproach  is 

taken  as  a  motto,  and  was  painted  in  huge  white  letters 
on  the  side  of  the  great  German  liner  as  she  steamed 


Hano^r 


^Hamburg 


Magdeburg 


•Dresden 


Frankfort 


THE   BERLIN   RAILWAY   SFIDER   WEB. 

up  Southampton  Water  after  her   voyage  across  the 
Atlantic. 

An  advance  has  surely  been  made ;    as  surely  it  has 
been  controlled  by  the  complicated  conditions,  partly 
geographical,  partly  historical,  and  we  should  be  rash  to 
conclude  that  a  fixed  state  has  been  reached.1 
1  See  note,  p.  340. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   LAND    OF   RIVERS  :     CHINA 

It  seems  perfectly  natural  that  the  history  which 
starts  with  Egypt  should  have  developed  just  as  it 
has  done ;  that  man,  by  learning  to  control  such  energy 
as  is  possible  in  Europe,  should  have  developed  the 
type  of  civilization  we  call  Western. 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  East,  and  first 
to  the  Far  East — to  China.  We  shall  see  that  the  history 
of  China  has  been  controlled  by  the  geography  of  China 
just  as  much  as  the  history  of  Europe  has  been  con- 
trolled by  its  geography.  The  history  is  very  different 
because  the  geography  is  very  different.  A  comparison 
of  these  differences  in  the  history  will  show  how  impor- 
tant the  geography  of  each  is.  We  must  notice  what 
features  of  the  history  and  geography  are  common  to 
both,  what  phenomena  are  present  in  European  history 
and  geography  that  are  absent  in  Chinese  history  and 
geography,  and  what  phenomena  are  present  in  Chinese 
history  and  geography  that  are  absent  in  Europe. 

Maps  of  the  Far  East  show  these  facts — 

(1)  That  China  x  is  on  the  eastern  front  of  the  great 
continent  of  Euro- Asia,  in  latitude  20°— 40°,  is  exposed 

1  On  some  political  maps  China  is  shown  as  including  a  great 
deal  of  Central  Asia,  but  Mongolia  has  lepudiated  the  suzerainty 
of  the  Chinese  Republic. 

Q  225 


220      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

to  the  monsoon  system  of  winds  and  rains,  and  is  about 
the  size  of  Europe  without  Russia,  or  of  half  of  the 
United  States. 

(2)  That  on  the  land  side  there  is  a  great  stretch  cf 
high  ground,  with  Tibet,  the  highest  stretch  of  highland 
in  the  world,  on  the  south. 

(3)  That  the  sea  border  is  a  great  curve  in  the  shape  of 
quarter  of  a  circle,  with  no  part  of  Asia  beyond,  with  no 
land  of  any  account  till  the  other  side  of  the  Pacific  is 
reached,1  and  in  addition  that  there  is  no  Mediterranean 
Sea. 

(4)  That  there  is  only  one  peninsula,  Shantung,  and 
that  projects  north-eastward. 

(5)  That  three  great  rivers  flow  from  the  plateau  to 
the  sea.  The  most  northerly  —  the  Hwang-Ho  —  flows 
from  the  lower  part  of  the  plateau  on  the  north;  the 
other  two — the  Yangtse-Kiang  and  the  Si-Kiang — flow 
from  the  high  plateau  of  Tibet.  The  Hwang-Ho,  when 
it  descends  from  the  highlands,  flows  over  a  plain  largely 
deltaic.  The  Yangtse-Kiang,  not  only  the  largest  of 
the  three  but  that  with  the  longest  course  after  leaving 
the  plateau,  flows  across  hilly  districts.  The  Si-Kiang 
flows  in  a  valley  with  a  high  mountain  belt  on  the  south. 

All  these  physical  facts  have  had  their  effect  at 
different  times  in  ways  that  correspond  very  closely  to 
the  ways  in  which  similar  facts  have  affected  European 
history. 

We  do  not  know  how,  nor  even  very  accurately  when, 
anything  like  the  dawnings  of  civilization  began  to 
appear  in  China.  It  is,  however,  pretty  certain  that 
in  China  history  begins  much  later  than  in  Egypt,  and 

1  Pekin  is  almost  exactly  the  antipodes  of  Valparaiso,  ».  e.  the 
Pacific  is  half  the  world  broad. 


CHINA  227 

somewhat  later  than  in  Babylonia.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
suggest  a  reason  for  this.  Nowhere  is  there  such  an 
ideally  protected  position  as  Egypt  enjoyed.  No  desert 
in  China  protects  a  river  valley  so  completely  as  the 
Sahara  protects  Egypt.  Yet  the  beginnings  of  Chinese 
civilization  are  as  like  the  beginnings  of  Western  civiliza- 
tion as  the  geographical  conditions  allow. 

We  have  seen  that  a  great  triangular  plain  occupies 
a  great  part  of  the  central  portion  of  the  continent  of 
Euro-Asia,  and  that  this  low  ground  is  rimmed  round 
by  highlands  on  all  sides  but  the  north.  This  highland 
area  becomes  in  Eastern  Asia  more  than  a  belt.  Here 
there  is  a  wide  triangle  of  plateau  land  facing  south-east 
and  north-east.  It  is  in  three  levels :  the  highest, 
Tibet,  in  the  south,  is  two  to  three  miles  high;  the 
second,  three-quarters  to  half  a  mile  high,  is  set  round 
Lake  Baikal.  All  the  rest  is  just  under  half  a  mile. 
Each  level  is  bordered  by  mountain  ranges.  Owing  to 
its  height  and  its  consequent  cold  and  drought,  Tibet 
is  permanently  uninhabitable  except  in  special  areas. 
The  lowest  level  is  so  rimmed  round  by  mountains 
that  a  great  portion  of  the  moisture  carried  inland  by 
inflowing  winds  is  condensed  before  it  reaches  the 
interior;  as  a  result,  its  surface,  like  that  of  the  plain 
farther  west,  is  partly  desert,  partly  grassland,  and  has 
a  sufficiency  of  water  only  under  the  curtain  of  the 
mountains,  where  streams  emerge  on  to  the  lower  land. 
Thus  on  the  southern  half  of  its  western  frontier 
China  has  a  great  stretch  of  absolutely  impassable  land, 
and  on  the  northern  half  a  semi-desert,  not  indeed 
so  impassable  as  to  form  a  sure  defence,  but  yet  a 
great  protection.  Both  southern  and  northern  defences 
extend  far  westwards. 


228      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

On  Looking  a1  the  map  more  closely  it  will  be  seen  I  bat 
where  the  Hwaug-Ho  descends  from  the  highlands  on 
to  the  plain  it  receives  a  tributary,  the  Wei — or  "  clear  "- 
river,  which  has  a  valley  deeply  trenched  into  the 
surrounding  plateau.  This  valley  was  the  nursery  of 
Chinese  civilization,  where  the  first  Chinese  Adam  used 
his  spade,  as  did  his  Egyptian  and  Chaldean  brothers,  not 
only  to  dig  but  to  ditch.  Protected  it  was  to  a  certain 
considerable  extent  by  the  surrounding  semi-desert  con- 
ditions, and  here,  as  in  Egypt  and  Mesopotamia,  the 
seasonal  variation  of  summer  and  winter  is  most  marked, 
while  extremes  of  heat  and  cold,  though  more  marked 
than  in  Egypt  and  Chaldea,  are  not  too  trying.  Water 
is  not  too  plentiful,  and  none  can  be  wasted.  There  is 
protection  with  a  certain  stimulus  to  use  brains,  to 
make  the  most  of  a  situation  which  has  natural  energy 
neither  too  great  to  overpower  man  nor  too  scanty  to 
be  used.  It  is  not  accident  that  in  latitude  30°-35°  the 
beginnings  of  civilization  have  first  appeared  in  widely 
separated  districts  on  the  earth's  surface. 

But  if  the  beginnings  of  Chinese  civilization  were  of 
the  same  character  as  and  controlled  by  circumstances 
similar  to  those  of  Western  civilization,  it  has  shown 
different  characteristics  and  developed  in  a  different 
way.  It  would  perhaps  be  more  correct  to  say  that 
Chinese  civilization  has  continued  to  develop  on  the 
original  lines  all  through  its  history,  whereas  Western 
civilization  has  been  influenced,  as  we  have  seen,  first  by 
one  factor  and  then  by  another. 

The  difference  in  site  is  largely  responsible.  In  Egypt 
the  land  available  for  settlement  is  small,  with  very 
definite  limits.  Even  the  land  bordering  the  Euphrates 
and  Tigris  available  for  a  young  state,  though  larger,  is 


CHINA 


229 


not  very  extensive.  This  is  perhaps  an  advantage  to  a 
primitive  race.  In  China,  however,  the  Wei  Valley,  with 
its  continuation  the  middle  Hwang-Ho,  opens  out  into 
one  of  the  most  fertile  deltaic  plains  in  the  world.  Here 
was  a  larger  field  to  be  occupied  by  settlers,  or  to  be 
civilized  if  already  occupied,  when  the  available  space 
in  their  original  land  became  too  small.  There  was  no 
need  to  change  occupation;  there  was  no  other  area 
with  which  trade  might  take  place ;  there  was  no  "  way  " 


m  n  3000 


THE   WEI   VALLEY   AND   THE   GREAT   PLAIN    OF   CHINA. 

The  size  of  the  plain  should  be  compared  with  the  size  of  the  Nile 
Valley  drawn  to  the  same  scale. 

by  which  other  conditions  could  be  set  up.  The  delta 
required  only  the  same  kind  of  civilization,  but  slightly 
modified  to  make  the  most  of  the  swampy  land  through 
which  natural  channels,  continually  changing,  took  the 
water  to  the  sea. 

This  is  the  original  China ;  here  men  probably  existed 
in  prehistoric  times,  before  there  appeared  even  the 
dawnings  of  the  civilization  we  are  considering.  Here, 
and  perhaps  to  the  southward,  there  lived  men  whose 
descendants,  having  given   place   before  the   advance 


230      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 


of  a  superior  race,  are  found  in  the  more  inaccessible 
mountain  districts  of  the  south-west;  men  who  very 
probably  form  the  rootstock  of  the  present  Chinese,  the 
stock  on  which  have  been  engrafted  many  other  related 
branches.  To  this  original  China  —  the  yellow  land, 
yellow  with  the  loess  of  the  Western  steppe;    watered 


THE   LOESS   REGION. 

Loess  is  the  very  finest  dust  blown  by  the  outflowing  dry  winter 
monsoon  winds  from  the  central  arid  regions  :  it  accumulates  on  the 
margin  of  the  plateau. 

by  the  Yellow  River,  yellow  with  mud,  flowing  to  the 
Yellow  Sea,  yellow  from  the  same  cause — up  to  within 
two  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  Chinese  civilization 
was  confined,  slowly  perfecting  for  2000  to  3000  years 
methods  of  spade  culture  and  irrigation  which  to  this 
day  are  characteristic  of  the  race. 

But  why  were  the  Chinese  so  confined  to  the  north  of 
what  we  know  as  China  ?     That  the  sea  should  have 


CHINA 


231 


been  a  barrier  in  front  was  most  natural  before  the 
arrival  of  an  ocean  age;  that  the  plateau  should  not 
have  tempted  them  back  to  its  wildernesses  is  equally 
natural ;  the  northern  lands,  reached  through  the  narrow 
strip  of  low  ground — narrower  then  than  now — between 
mountain  and  sea,  were  not  at  first  more  attractive  than 
the  plateau.  But  why  should  they  not  have  gone  south  ? 
The  reason  lies  in  the  fact  that  central  and  south  China, 
the  basins   of  the  Yangtse-Kiang   and  the   Si-Kiang, 


over  600  ft    B&&  o  ver  5000  />  —  Limit  of  Earlier  China 

THE   SOUTHERN  LIMIT   OF  EARLIER   CHINA. 
South  of  the  boundary  was  forest  and  jungle. 

have  a  different  character  from  the  basin  of  the 
Hwang-Ho.  A  map  shows  that  they  are  hilly,  in  some 
parts  even  mountainous,  and  specially  it  should  be 
noticed  that  just  south  of  the  Wei  and  middle  Hwang-Ho 
is  a  range  of  mountains,  the  Tsin-ling.  This  range  and 
its  continuation  eastward  were  for  long  ages  clothed  with 
forest  which  did  not  tempt  the  agricultural  Chinese  till 
the  plain  was  reaching  a  limit  to  its  capacity.  Not  only 
was  the  mountain  forest-covered,  but  all  the  lands  south- 
ward, thanks  to  a  warmer  and  moister  climate,  were 


232      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

covered  with  a  jungle  growth,  and  had  to  be  slowly 
cleared  ere  any  organized  settlement  was  possible. 

It  was  only  towards  the  close  of  the  third  century  B.C. 
that  the  first  real  attempt  was  made  to  extend  Chinese 
rule  over  these  districts,  though  Chinese  settlers  must 
for  long  have  been  slowly  extending  Chinese  civilization 
southwards.  The  process  was  not  completed  for  a 
century  or  two  longer,  but  it  is  worth  noting  that  the 
first  attempt  to  rule  effectively  over  the  south  was  made 
by  the  short-lived  dynasty  of  Tsin,  from  whose  name  we 
get  the  name  by  which  we  now  speak  of  the  land — 
China.  The  process  was,  however,  left  to  be  practically 
completed  under  a  dynasty  which  ruled  during  the  two 
centuries  preceding  and  the  two  centuries  succeeding 
the  Christian  era,  and  after  whom  the  Northern  Chinese 
still  call  themselves  the  "men  of  Han." 

But,  again,  how  was  it  that,  if  South  China  is  so 
different  from  the  North,  Chinese  civilization  was  able, 
however  slowly,  to  make  South  China  one  with  the  North  ? 
How  is  it  that  China  was,  and  is,  so  homogeneous  ?  The 
south  is  hilly,  but  it  is  well  provided  with  rivers  and 
river  valleys — rivers  that  have  a  constant  flow,  though 
owing  to  the  monsoon  system  of  rains  they  have  a 
seasonal  variation  in  volume.  The  problems  connected 
with  irrigation  and  agriculture  generally  are  somewhat 
more  complex,  but  they  are  not  different  from  those 
in  the  north,  and  the  hill-sides  can  bear  cultivation 
to  a  greater  height  than  would  be  possible  farther 
north,  so  that  the  same  kind  of  civilization  is  possible; 
and,  with  a  3000-year  experience  of  agriculture  and 
irrigation  work  behind  them,  the  geographical  momen- 
tum was  so  strong  that  the  Northern  Chinese  easily 
overcame  what  might  appear  even  serious  difficulties. 


CHINA  233 

People  with  other  habits  and  ideals,  e.  g.  the  Romans, 
might,  probably  would,  have  developed  South  China 
on  other  lines,  but  the  Chinese  developed  it  in  the 
same  way  as  the  land  to  the  north,  and,  once  the 
initial  difficulties  were  overcome,  it  was  found  to  be 
every  whit  as  suitable  for  the  peculiar  Chinese  civiliza- 
tion. It  is  not  a  mere  coincidence  that  the  first  governor 
of  Sechwan,  after  it  was  annexed  to  the  Northern  Empire, 
is  remembered  not  for  any  schemes  of  conquest  but  for 
his  great  irrigation  works,  and  that  his  son  and  successor 
is  even  more  famous  for  the  same  reason,  having  had  one 
of  the  most  magnificent  temples  in  China  raised  in  his 
honour. 

The  Han  dynasty  ruled  while  the  Roman  Empire  was 
most  flourishing,  and  though  there  are  many  differences 
there  is  a  certain  similarity  in  the  problems  which  con- 
fronted each.  In  each  case  there  was  a  greatly  expanded 
empire  which  demanded  some  means  of  holding  it 
together,  some  means  by  which  communication  could 
be  kept  up  between  the  various  parts.  The  Romans,  as 
we  have  seen,  invented  roads.  To  the  Chinese,  accus- 
tomed to  water,  it  was  much  more  natural  that  they 
should  turn  to  account  the  great  Yangtse-Kiang  with 
all  its  tributaries,  one  of  the  most  magnificent  water- 
ways in  the  world.  This  helped  to  bind  together  the 
whole  of  what  otherwise  might  have  been  split  into 
smaller  units.  The  smaller  units  do  exist,  for  the  most 
part  river  basins  small  and  large,  but  the  great  river  to 
which  they  all  look  has  bound  them  together.  In  the 
south  the  Si-Kiang  played  a  similar  though  a  less 
important  part. 

The  result  is  twofold.  On  the  one  hand,  we  find  that 
the  smallest  river  basins  form  the  smallest  political 


234      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

divisions  which  are  the  most  permanent  features  in 
all  Chinese  history,  and  the  largest  river  basins  form 
provinces  which,  though  under  different  names,  reappear 
again  and  again  at  successive  periods  of  re-organization. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  find  that  river  communication  is 
looked  on  as  the  one  natural  way  of  carrying  on  trade. 
The  idea  has  been  so  forced  on  the  minds  of  the  Chinese 
by  the  supreme  excellence  of  some  waterways  that  the 
rest,  though  far  less  suited  for  traffic,  are  by  infinite  toil 
pressed  into  service.  It  is  significant  that  even  now 
the  Chinese  call  such  roads  as  do  exist  "  dry  ways  " — 
the  natural  sequence  to  the  idea  that  the  way  is  a  wet 
way,  a  river.  Thus  China  is  specially  a  land  of  rivers, 
not  only  in  the  sense  that  rivers  flow  through  it,  but 
in  the  sense  that  its  history  has  been  greatly  affected 
by  this  controlling  fact,  just  as  we  have  seen  that  the 
histories  of  other  lands  have  been  affected  by  other 
controlling  facts. 

It  is  significant,  too,  that  when  China  did  break  up  at 
the  close  of  the  Han  Dynasty  in  a.d.  220,  as  did  the 
Western  Roman  Empire  in  the  fifth  century,  it  did  not 
break  into  almost  numberless  units,  but  into  three  parts 
only  :  (i)  the  original  China  in  the  north,  (ii)  the  Lower 
Yangtse,  and  (iii)  Sechwan  separated  from  the  Lower 
Yangtse  by  the  great  series  of  rapids  above  the  modern 
Ichang.  It  is  significant,  too,  that  even  that  separation 
lasted  but  little  more  than  a  generation.  China  was 
held  together  not  by  a  governing  power  from  a  centre, 
but  by  the  oneness  of  its  people,  who  had  the  same  ideals 
of  life,  the  same  customs,  because  the  geographical  facts 
were  essentially  the  same,  or  had  been  made  so. 

In  another  way  the  conditions  of  China  were  similar 
to  those  of  Rome.     Rome  broke  up  because  of  direct 


CHINA 


235 


and  indirect  attacks  from  without,  from  the  plain.  She 
defended  herself  by  taking  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube 
as  a  defence,  and  by  building  forts  to  keep  out  invading 
tribes  by  force  of  arms.  Similar  conditions  compelled 
the  Chinese,  even  as  early  as  the  Tsin  Dynasty,  to  build 
a  great  wall  along  their  north-west  front,  to  protect  the 
only  frontier  open  to  attack  from  the  nomad  tribes  of 


THE   GREAT  WALL   OF  CHINA. 

The  great  wall  was  built  to  guard  China  only  on  the  north  :  it  was 
built  so  as  to  include  the  way  from  the  west,  which  entered  China  by 
the  Wei  Valley. 

the  semi-arid  plateau.  It  is  again  significant  of  the 
Chinese  attitude  of  mind,  however,  that  in  the  west, 
where  the  river,  the  Hwang-Ho,  was  no  road  and  was 
quite  unfitted  for  irrigation,  it  was  never  used  as  a 
defence,  but  trust  was  put  in  the  wall. 

Let  us  now  consider  more  particularly  the  influence 
of  the  plateau  on  Chinese  history.  In  its  northern  por- 
tion, at  any  rate,  the  plateau  is  not  a  desert  comparable 


236      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

to  the  Sahara,  but  is  rather  a  steppeland  with  wastes 
stretching  over  great  tracts.  On  the  less  arid  districts 
nomad  peoples  have  lived  since  history  began,  and  from 
it  have  come  down  by  the  only  way,  the  valley  of  the 
Wei  and  Hwang-Ho,  on  to  the  plains  of  China.  Such 
steppe  people,  as  we  have  seen  in  ancient  Assyria,  in 
lands  overrun  bv  Mohammedans,  and  in  more  modern 


9  over 5000 '/* 
^Desert   {^Vegetation 


^x^^^^^4U^kR%a^^^ 


THE   TAKIM   BASIN. 

The  Tarim  Basin  is  protected  and  well  supplied  with  water  along 

its  edges. 


Russia,  because  of  their  daring  and  endurance  bred  into 
them  by  their  nomad  life,  are  generally  able  to  conquer 
and  rule  an  agricultural  people. 

It  is  indeed  possible  that  the  beginnings  of  Chinese 
civilization  can  be  traced  even  farther  back  than  to  the 
times  when  we  find  something  more  than  barbarism  in 
the  valley  of  the  Wei.  Notice  that  at  the  north-west 
corner  of  the  high  plateau  of  Tibet  huge  mountains  make 


CHINA  237 

a  great  curve  round  to  the  Thian-Shan,  enclosing  a  bay 
of  the  lower  plateau  shut  off  from  all  else  on  north- 
west and  south  by  high  lands  and  on  the  east  by  the 
desert.  The  great  height  of  the  surrounding  mountains 
squeezes  yet  some  moisture  from  the  dry  air,  so  that 
round  their  bases  is  a  series  of  oases  of  great  fertility. 
If  protection  counts  for  anything,  it  is  in  just  such  a 
situation  that  we  should  expect  to  find  the  beginnings 
of  a  civilization.  It  is  possible,  perhaps  even  probable, 
that  the  beginnings  of  distinctively  Chinese  civilization 
are  due  to  those  who  found  their  way  thence  under  the 
curtain  of  the  mountains  bordering  Tibet  on  the  north, 
to  what  was  to  them  the  much  more  desirable  valley  of 
the  Wei. 

But  this  was  not  the  only  occasion,  if  it  was  an  occasion, 
on  which  the  plateau  peoples  descended  to  the  plain, 
and  other  invaders  were  rather  nomads  of  the  steppe 
than  settled  agriculturists,  so  that  they  were  felt  to  be 
a  menace,  as  is  seen  in  the  existence  of  the  wall.  At  the 
same  time,  the  incursions  of  such  hardy  races  were  not 
without  advantage.  It  is  probably  not  alone  owing  to 
their  colder  climate  that  the  peoples  of  the  Hwang-Ho 
are  a  sturdier  race  than  are  those  of  the  south.  It  is 
they  who  have  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  attacks,  and  who 
have  benefited  to  the  greater  extent  by  the  addition 
of  new  blood ;  some  of  the  intermixture  may  have  been 
at  first  during  war  time,  but  probably  some  has  taken 
place  during  times  of  peace,  and  even  plateau  tribes,  which 
have  entered  the  land  as  conquerors,  have  in  the  end 
been  absorbed  into  the  general  stock. 

It  was  about  100  B.C.  when  the  Chinese,  recognizing  that 
the  best  defence  is  attack,  first  succeeded  in  extending 
their  rule,  if  but  for  a  short  time,  over  the  inhabitants 


238      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

of  the  plateau.  At  the  break-up  of  the  Han  power  we 
have  seen  that  there  was  a  certain  disruption,  and  in 
this,  as  was  natural,  the  control  of  the  plateau  was  lost. 
When  China  did  at  length,  shortly  after  a.d.  600,  settle 
down  under  the  powerful  rule  of  the  Tang  Dynasty,  it 
was  also  but  natural  that  another  attempt  should  be 
made  to  extend  its  borders  still  farther.  On  both 
occasions  the  chief  objective  was  the  Tarim  basin, 
and  on  both  occasions  the  influence  of  the  intervening 
distance  across  all  but  impassable  deserts  was  too  strong 
to  allow  the  rule  to  be  more  than  nominal  or  to  last  for 
long.  The  occasions  are,  however,  noteworthy,  for  the 
Chinese  then  made  a  contact,  however  slight,  with  the 
Western  nations  from  whom  they  were  separated  by 
the  great  breadth  of  the  plateau  and  the  great  plain, 
and  yet  more  by  the  peoples  on  them. 

Before  considering  the  last  and  in  some  respects 
the  greatest  influence  exerted  by  the  plateau,  we  must 
consider  an  allied  phenomenon.  We  have  seen  that  in 
Europe  a  civilized  centre  is  apt  to  rouse  to  action  some 
neighbouring  centre  less  civilized  if  more  forceful;  we 
have  now  to  notice  a  similar  fact  in  the  case  of  China. 
Manchuria  lies  to  the  north,  separated  from  China  by  the 
deeply  cut  Gulf  of  Pe-chi-li,  which  allows  only  a  narrow 
neck  of  land  to  intervene  between  its  western  end  and 
the  plateau  edge.  Lying  farther  north,  Manchuria  is  a 
colder  land  and  altogether  less  desirable  for  an  early 
civilization  than  China.  Here,  however,  men  lived,  and 
in  course  of  time  they  were  roused  to  action  by  the 
neighbouring  civilization,  though  the  geographical  con- 
ditions separated  them  sufficiently  to  allow  them  to 
feel  and  be  independent.  A  tribe  of  these  Manchus — 
the  Kitan  Tatars — extended  their  rule  southwards,  so 


CHINA  239 

that  by  a.d.  900  we  find  a  semi-alien  power  occupying 
the  north  of  what  had  been  China.  These  Tatars  never 
dominated  much  of  the  country,  but  so  much  did  they 
strike  the  imagination  of  the  few  travellers  who  found 
their  way  from  the  west,  that  it  is  from  their  name  we 
get  the  mediaeval  name  of  China — "  Cathay." 

This  wakening  of  Manchuria  was  a  new  feature  in 
Chinese  history,  and  its  newness  was  marked  by  the  fact 
that  it  was  now  that  Pekin  was  founded.  Before  this 
time  the  capital  of  China  had  lain,  now  here,  now  there, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Wei  or  Middle  Hwang-Ho.  Hence- 
forward, with  a  break  for  but  a  short  time,  it  is  from 
Pekin  that  China  is  governed.  Notice  the  significance 
of  its  position  within,  but  just  within,  the  northern  plain, 
at  the  exit  of  the  narrow  way  from  Manchuria,  between 
the  highlands  of  the  west  and  the  Gulf  of  Pe-chi-li  on 
the  east :  a  centre  for  the  organization  of  the  land  from 
a  Manchurian  base,  as  Vienna  is  a  centre  from  which 
the  Austrians  could  organize  Hungary,  as  London  is  a 
centre  from  which  those  who  came  from  the  opposite 
shores  of  Europe  could  organize  England,  as  Edinburgh 
is  the  centre  from  which  those  who  came  from  England 
could  organize  Scotland,  or  as  Dublin  is  the  centre  from 
which  those  who  crossed  from  Anglesea  could  organize 
Ireland.  Awakened  Manchuria  sent  yet  another  horde 
to  replace  the  first,  and  to  dominate  yet  more  of  China, 
while  distinctively  Chinese  power  was  forced  farther 
and  farther  south  till  it  held  only  the  Yangtse  and 
Si-Kiang  basins — the  hilly  regions. 

Then  at  length  the  plateau  peoples  were  again  roused 
to  action,  perhaps  by  the  influence  of  China,  perhaps 
by  the  influence  of  Mohammedanism.  Jenghiz  Khan 
first  dominated  all  the  plateau  peoples  from  his  home  in 


240     GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

the  Altai,  and  descended  west  and  east  with  his  Mongol 
hordes  from  the  plateau  to  the  plains  below.  His  son 
and  grandson  continued  the  process  of  conquest  and  re- 
duced all,  Chinese  and  Tatars  alike,  to  their  rule.  As  they 
came  from  wit  hout,  it  was  nothing  to  them  where  previous 
frontiers  had  been,  so  an  attempt  was  made  to  con- 
tinue conquest  beyond  them.  On  land  this  policy 
met  with  some  success;  it  is  noticeable  that  in  the 
third  generation,  under  Kublai  Khan,  they  made  the 
attempt  seawards  also  upon  the  land  we  know  as 
Japan;  but  such  an  attempt  made  by  landmen  was 
doomed  to  failure.  The  Japanese  warded  off  the  attack 
from  their  homes,  and  again  we  see  how  a  great  empire 
whose  power  lay  in  its  landmen  was  met  and  foiled  by 
rude  sailors  in  the  Tsushima  Straits,  as  Xerxes  had  been 
at  Salamis,  and  Russia  was  to  be,  but  a  few  miles  away, 
more  than  six  centuries  later. 

This  invasion  by  the  Mongols  was  a  conquest,  and,  like 
all  conquests  by  races  whose  ideals  of  civilization  are 
lower  than  those  of  the  conquered,  and  whose  power  lies 
in  their  physical  bravery  and  hardiness,  it  ended  in  the 
conquerors  becoming  more  effeminate,  losing  control, 
and  being  absorbed.  Now  it  results  from  the  geographi- 
cal conditions  that  China  is  surrounded  by  lands  whose 
peoples  possessed  a  less  advanced  civilization  even  when 
they  have  been  brave  and  hardy,  so  that  during  its  long 
history  China  has  never  been  conquered  by  superior 
races,  and  its  peoples  have  always  absorbed  their 
conquerors.  None  the  less  this  Mongol  invasion  in  the 
thirteenth  century  marks  another  definite  advance,  for 
such  extensions  as  they  made  were  made  in  the  name 
of  China  and  remained  when  the  invaders  themselves 
had  disappeared. 


CHINA  241 

Following  the  absorption  of  the  Mongols,  we  have 
naturally  enough  the  third  notable  historic  period  of 
pure  Chinese  rule,  that  under  the  Ming  Dynasty  from  the 
fourteenth  century  to  the  seventeenth,  when  an  attempt 
was  made  to  rule  the  land  from  Nankin,  a  more  central 
position  than  the  Wei  Valley  or  the  northern  entry. 
Though  Nankin  was  the  capital  for  only  a  few  years, 
and  soon  gave  place  to  Pekin,  yet  the  fact  that  such  a 
position  was  chosen  at  all  for  the  rule  of  the  whole 
country  is  significant  of  a  development  of  ideas.  Pekin 
took  its  place  in  order  to  be  as  near  as  possible  to  entries 
open  to  invaders  from  the  north.  The  foresight  was 
justified,  though  unavailing  in  the  long  run,  for  in  the 
seventeenth  century  the  Tatars  of  Manchuria  for  the 
third  and  last  time  attempted  the  conquest  of  the  whole 
of  China,  this  time  with  success.  The  conquest  was  not 
sudden.  Two  generations  elapsed  from  the  rise  to 
importance  of  the  Tsings  in  the  eastern  mountains  of 
Manchuria  to  the  time  when  they  were  able  to  take 
possession  of  Pekin,  and  it  was  another  generation 
thereafter  ere  the  whole  cf  China  owned  their  rule, 
the  last  district  of  China  proper  to  do  so  being  very 
naturally  Fokien  in  the  south-east.  As  the  Mongols 
had  extended  Chinese  rule,  so  now  the  Manchus  con- 
tinued their  conquests  beyond  the  limits  of  China  proper, 
conquering  and  consolidating  their  power  in  Mongolia, 
and  as  late  as  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
extending  their  rule  beyond  Tibet  even  across  the  Hima- 
layas, where  the  Nepaulese  till  the  beginning  of  the 
twentieth  century  owned  their  suzerainty. 

Now,  before  we  proceed  to  consider  the  last  great 
series  of  geographical  facts  which  have  controlled  Chinese 
history,  notice  what  we  have  already  learned.     Broadly 


242      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

it  comes  to  this,  that  owing  to  the  existence  of  three 
rivers,  themselves  the  product  of  the  more  remote  geo- 
graphical conditions  of  relief  and  climate,  China  has 
produced  a  homogeneous  people,  whose  essential  unity 
has  been  strengthened  by  the  existence  on  the  west 
of  a  plateau  of  enormous  breadth.  These  two  sets  of 
features,  the  river  system  and  the  plateau,  are  the  chief 
controls  of  Chinese  history. 

Other  geographical  conditions  have  had  a  like  result ; 
the  position  of  China  fronting  the  open  ocean,  on  the 
road  to  nowhere  by  sea,  and  the  absence  of  any  Mediter- 
ranean Sea,  are  great,  silent,  negative  controls  which 
have  to  an  incalculable  degree  tended  to  confirm  the 
Chinese  in  their  habits  as  landmen,  and  to  prevent  them 
from  becoming  seamen.  Nor  were  the  Chinese  forced 
to  take  to  the  sea,  as  were  the  Norsemen,  by  the  poverty 
of  a  cold,  sterile  land.  There  was  no  effective  pressure 
behind,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Saxon.  China  is  vast 
enough  to  allow  such  pressures  as  did  come  from  the 
plateau  or  Manchuria  to  dissipate  themselves  ere  the 
seaboard  was  reached,  and  there  was  always  the  southern 
land  where  these  pressures  were  less  felt.  No  way 
reached  the  sea,  as  was  the  case  with  the  Phoenician. 
The  coast  of  China  is  a  great  round  curve  with  no  penin- 
sulas to  tempt  men  seawards,  as  was  the  case  with  the 
Greeks.  China  has  never  been  a  sea-power,  because 
nothing  has  ever  induced  her  peoples  to  be  otherwise 
than  landmen,  and  landmen  dependent  on  agriculture, 
with  the  same  habits  and  ways  of  thinking  drilled  into 
them  through  forty  centuries ;  so  that  even  when  tribes 
from  the  plateau  have  broken  in  and  seized  the  reins  of 
power,  even  when  millions  of  inhabitants  have  been 
massacred,  China  has  not  broken  up  into  numberless 


CHINA  243 

units,  as  did  the  Roman  Empire.  The  homogeneity  of  her 
people,  the  result  to  a  very  large  extent  of  geographical 
conditions,  has  always  asserted  itself.1 

It  is  the  discovery  of  the  ocean  by  Western  civiliza- 
tion which  has  gradually  brought  a  new  important 
factor  to  affect  the  history  of  China.  Hitherto  the 
Japanese  —  whose  civilization  originated  in  China  — 
had  been  the  only  seamen  with  whom  the  Chinese 
had  come  into  contact,  and  the  contact  was  not 
friendly,  for  the  earlier  Japanese  of  whom  we  know 
visited  the  coast  of  the  mainland  only  in  raids,  as  the 
Norsemen-  visited  the  rest  of  Europe.  The  last,  and 
perhaps  the  most  important  series  of  such  raids,  took 
place  early  in  the  sixteenth  century,  just  prior  to  the 
earliest  noteworthy  results  to  the  Chinese  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  ocean  by  the  Western  nations;  and  the 
only  effect  then,  as  earlier,  was  to  drive  inhabitants 
inland  away  from  the  sea,  on  which  the  seamen  alone 
felt  safe.  It  is  significant  that  till  the  thirteenth 
century  of  our  era  the  Chinese  never  even  heard  of 
Formosa,  lying  only  seventy  miles  from  their  coast, 
and  never  made  it  their  own  till  1682,  after  first  Portu- 
guese and  then  Dutch  had  planted  trading-stations 
on  the  island.  Even  then  it  was  seized  only  at  the 
accession  of  a  new  alien  dynasty  seeking  for  new  worlds 
to  conquer,  and,  when  it  was  conquered,  was  little 
valued  during  the  two  centuries  it  was  held. 

1  One  cannot  ignore  the  existence  of  the  ideographic  writing 
which  enables  Chinamen  in  all  parts  of  China  to  understand  one 
another;  it  has  no  doubt  had  an  enormous  effect,  but  unity 
of  language,  of  speech  even,  has  not  prevented  Germany 
and  Italy  from  breaking  up  into  independent  states ;  it  has 
not  prevented  the  separation  of  Norway  and  Denmark,  nor 
of  Britain  and  the  United  States  of  America.  Geographical 
conditions  have  been  the  stronger. 


Jll      C  KOCH  API  IV    AND    WuJlLD   POWER 


With  the  growing  lack  of  control,  owing  to  the  in- 
creasing effeminacy  of  Manchu  rulers  and  the  absorp- 
tion of  their  followers  into  the  common  stock,  China 
has  been  left  more  and  more  between  two  sets  of  forces  : 
forces  from  the  land,  the  like  of  which  she  has  known 
before,  and  forces  from  the  ocean,  which  bring  new 


\  over  600  ft 


WBBSm 


CITIES    WHICH    HAVE    BEEN    CAPITALS    OF   CHINA. 

These  three  towns  are  situated  at  the  three  corners  of  the 
triangular  plain. 

controls  into  Chinese  history.  The  forces  of  European 
origin  coming  by  sea  must  approach  from  the  south; 
hence  there  arises  a  new  condition  of  things.  Up  to 
this  time  the  strategic  centre  of  China  has  been  in  the 
northern  plain.  Chinese  capitals  have  usually  been 
at  one  of  the  three  corners  of  the  triangle,  as  at  Pekin 


CHINA  245 

to  guard  against  approach  from  the  north  round  the 
Gulf  of  Pe-chi-li,  or  as  at  Sian  to  guard  against  approach 
from  the  west  down  the  valley  of  the  Wei;  or  the 
capital  has  been  placed  still  on  the  edge  of  the  plain, 
but  as  at  Nankin  in  touch  with  the  southern  river 
system.  With  the  advent  of  ocean  power  coming  from 
the  south,  the  southern  ports  of  China  have  taken  on 
a  new  importance.  The  Treaty  ports  opened  in  1842 
are  all  ports  of  the  hilly  south,  two  in  Fokien  and  one 
just  beyond  its  southern  frontier.  The  entry  to  China 
is  by  Canton  or  Shanghai,  not  Pekin  or  Sian. 

And  yet  entries  to  China  remain  by  Sian  and  Pekin. 
The  Manchus  have  disappeared  off  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  Mongols,  tamed  by  Buddhism,  have  lost  their 
ancient  daring,  but  there  still  remain  the  possibilities 
of  the  plain  beyond.  The  forces  coming  from  the 
plain  reached  Manchuria  by  the  shortest  way  across 
the  plateau,  and  Russia  was  within  an  ace  of  entering 
China  by  the  old  gate  round  the  Gulf  of  Pe-chi-li.  That 
has  been  closed  for  the  present,  if  not  permanently, 
but  there  still  remains  the  old  way  by  way  of  Sian 
through  the  Zungarian  gate,  between  the  Altai  and  the 
Thian-Shan,  under  the  curtain  of  the  mountains,  and 
there  exists  a  well-frequented  way  across  the  grassland 
from  Baikal  directed  on  Pekin  through  easy  denies  in  the 
mountains  to  the  north.  The  political  position  is  in- 
tensely interesting ;  the  history  of  China  is  not  finished ; 
what  will  be  the  outcome  time  alone  will  show. 

Whatever  happens,  we  are  safe  in  saying,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  the  Chinese  people  are  not  worn  out  what- 
ever their  Manchu  rulers  may  have  been,  and,  on  the 
other,  that  the  history  will  be  controlled  by  geography 
and  by  some  of  the  great  forces  coming  from  land  and 


246      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

sea;  specially  the  interplay  of  these  forces  will  have  a 
growing  tendency  to  unify  China  and  make  her  more 
homogeneous  than  ever.  The  railway  and  the  steam- 
ship, these  characteristic  modern  forces  of  land  and 
sea,  each  supplementing  the  other,  are  on  the  eve  of 
bringing  this  about.  China  will  have  but  one  main 
railway  line;  this  is  what  no  other  country  has.  It 
will  run,  and  it  is  half  made,  from  Pekin  through 
Hankow  to  Canton,  from  the  capital  of  the  north  to 
the  capital  of  the  south.  It  will  be  fed  from  the  sea  at 
either  end,  and  by  the  magnificent  Yangtse  navigation 
in  the  centre  also.  Nor  is  the  Sian  entry  of  less  im- 
portance, for  across  the  plateau,  via  Zungaria  and 
Sian,  will  surely  come  a  great  railway  of  the  future 
to  strike  the  Chinese  main  line  at  right  angles  and  feed 
it  from  the  land.  These  and  all  the  other  subsidiary 
lines,  which  must  be  built  to  supplement  the  great 
water  system  of  communication,  cannot  fail  to  make 
and  keep  China  one.  This  unity  makes  for  stability, 
so  that  men  may  obtain  control  of  energy,  to  save  it  or  to 
use  it  to  the  best  advantage. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE   WARM   LAND  I     INDIA 

If  again,  as  a  preparation  for  further  work,  we  survey 
what  we  have  already  noticed,  it  is  seen  that  we  have 
traced  out  the  growth  of  two  civilizations,  each  affecting 
a  quarter  of  the  population  of  the  world — one  in  Europe, 
the  other  in  China ;  the  one  taking  many  forms,  because 


THE  THREE  AREAS  IN  THE  OLD  WORLD  WITH  GREAT  POPULATION. 

it  was  affected  in  many  ways  by  different  geographical 
controls;  the  other  a  continuous  growth  along  the 
same  lines,  because  of  the  overwhelming  importance  of 
one  set  of  factors;  both  being  affected  by  the  open 
steppeland  civilizations  of  the  great  heart  land  of  the 
old  world.  The  existence  of  each  seems  to  have  de- 
pended on  the  possibility  of  making  a  beginning  with 
"247 


248      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

small  things,  in   having  protection  to   organize  small 
communities  to  save  energy. 

Now,  if  we  consider  the  third  area  of  the  old  world 
with  a  great  population,  India,  we  are  at  once  struck 
by  the  fact  that  though  there  is  a  distinct  type  of 
civilization  which  may  be  called  Indian,  yet,  on  the 
one  hand,  India  has  never  been  organized  as  a  whole 
from  within,  as  China  has  been  for  centuries;  nor,  on 
the  other,  has  Indian  civilization  had  influence  all  over 
the  world,  as  had  European  civilization.  And  this 
distinct  type  of  Indian  civilization  takes  far  more  forms 
than  does  Chinese  or  even  European.  Further,  while 
the  civilization  of  Europe  is  a  continuous  growth  from 
the  seeds  planted  in  Egypt  and  Babylonia,  and  that 
of  China  grew  naturally  from  a  beginning  in  the  Wei 
Valley,  the  beginnings  of  Indian  civilization  can  be 
traced  to  no  such  simple  origins,  and  Indian  history 
has  been  far  more  profoundly  controlled  by  external 
forces. 

Consider  the  geographical  facts. 

Like  China  and  unlike  Europe  India  has  no  Mediter- 
ranean Sea;  there  is  no  assemblage  of  islands  off  the 
coast ;  the  land  is  warm  and,  on  the  whole,  productive. 
There  is  neither  temptation,  as  in  the  Mediterranean, 
nor  necessity,  as  in  Scandinavia,  for  the  inhabitants 
to  venture  on  to  the  sea;  they  have  remained  at  the 
early  stage  of  landmen  to  whom  the  sea,  is  unfamiliar. 

There  are  highlands  and  lowlands ;  a  map  shows 
the  great  highlands  of  the  north  and  north-west,  the 
Himalayas,  backed  by  the  plateau  of  Tibet,  continued 
eastwards  and  south-eastwards  as  many  great  mountain 
ranges  separated  by  steep,  densely  forested  valleys,  and 
continued  westwards  by  a  fan  of  mountains  descending 


INDIA 


249 


to  the  plateau  of  Iran.  In  the  peninsula  is  another 
much  lower  and  natter  highland,  steep-sided  on  the 
west,  sloping  gently  eastward,  and  to  a  considerable 
extent  worn  away  by  the  rivers  which  have  followed 
that  slope ;  there  is  a  very  narrow  lowland  on  the  west 
and  a  wider  lowland  on  the  east.  Between  the  northern 
mountains  and  the  southern  plateau  lies  the  great 
alluvial  plain  stretching  for  2000  miles  from  the  mouth 
of  the  Ganges  to  the  mouth  of  the  Indus,  without  a 


Are  3  "itf>  i 

temoerature  of 'ess 
than  50°during  January 


EURO-ASIA  :    TEMPERATURE. 
India  is  warmer  in  winter  than  either  China  or  Europe. 

stone  on  its  surface  over  its  whole  extent  except  close 
to  the  hill  margins,  and  rising  so  gently  at  the  rate  of  a  foot 
a  mile  that  to  the  eye  the  slope  is  quite  imperceptible. 
Here  there  is  nothing  of  the  variation  of  relief  in  the 
Balkans  or  in  Italy ;  here  nothing  of  the  centralization 
which  has  made  France. 

Even  when  climatic  conditions  are  taken  into  account, 
there  is  a  sameness  which  is  reflected  in  the  lives  of  the 
people.  Though  it  is  true  that  India  may  be  said  to 
possess  almost  every  variety  of  climate,  and  though 


250      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD  POWER 

scattered  up  and  down  through  India  there  are  hill 
stations  whose  climate  is  very  pleasant  for  a  greater 
or  less  part  of  the  year,  yet  the  fact  remains  that  these 
are  the  exceptions,  and  the  land  as  a  whole  is  hot, 
not  only  in  summer  but  in  winter.  During  the  latter 
season  nearly  the  whole  of  India  is  warmer  than  any 
part  of  China,  and  of  course  warmer  than  any  part  of 
Europe.  This  is  one  great  difference  between  India  and 
the  other  two  areas  with  great  populations — a  difference 
which  goes  far  to  explain  the  different  histories.  There 
is  less  need  to  save  bodily  energy  by  wearing  clothes 
at  any  season  of  the  year. 

This  general  statement,  however,  requires  qualifica- 
tion. The  north-western  border  does  experience  cold 
such  as  is  felt  in  no  other  district.  In  winter  the 
Punjab  is  the  coldest  part  of  India,  while  Sind  and  the 
Baluchistan  highlands  to  the  west,  though  extremely 
hot  in  summer  and  during  the  day,  may  at  night  even 
in  autumn  experience  many  degrees  of  frost.  Here, 
then,  you  would  expect  to  find  that  the  Indian  type  of 
civilization  is  somewhat  modified. 

If  we  consider  the  rainfall  and  the  effects  of  heat  and 
rainfall  on  vegetation,  we  see  that  the  northern  plain 
at  its  eastern  entrance  is  drenched  with  rain  and  so 
near  sea-level  that  the  water  cannot  run  off ;  thus  it  is 
wet  and  marshy  and  therefore  jungle-covered.  As  one 
goes  westwards  the  conditions  change  imperceptibly. 
There  is  less  rain  and  the  water  has  somewhat  more 
chance  of  running  off,  till  1000  miles  from  the  sea  the 
supply  of  water  is  deficient.  Continuing  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Indus  the  land  becomes  drier  and  drier,  and  the 
last  400  miles  is  steppeland  or  even  desert.  The  western 
slopes  of  the  southern  plateau  and  the  southern  slopes 


INDIA 


251 


of  the  Himalayas,  and  the  highlands  north-east  of  the 
Bay  of  Bengal,  are  also  drenched  with  rain  in  summer, 
and  retain  enough  moisture  to  allow  of  the  growth  of 
forests,  which  become  jungle  in  the  lower  and  damper 
areas.     The    south-west    monsoon    which    deluges    the 


INDIA  :    RAIN  REGIONS. 
Most  rain  falls  in  summer. 

Western  Ghats  blows  up  the  straight  valleys  of  the 
Narbada  and  Tapti,  and  carries  heavy  rain  farther 
inland  here  than  elsewhere,  while  eastwards  the  air- 
current  meets  that  which  has  come  more  directly  from 
the  Bay  of  Bengal,  and  induces  a  heavy  rainfall  over 
the  land  from  the  heads  of  these  two  river  valleys,  even 
to  the  coastlands  south  of  the  Ganges'  mouths.     Here 


252      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD  POWER 

the  soil  is  a  heavy  black  clay,  so  that  a  belt — part 
forest,  part  jungle,  and  in  part  now  cultivated  land — 
expends  across  the  northern  part  of  the  peninsula  from 
Gujarat  to  the   Mahanadi  delta.     South  of   this  belt, 


INDIA  :     FOREST  LANDS. 


There  are  three  belts :  (i)  The  Himalayan  belt ;  (ii)  the  Mid- 
Indian  belt;  (iii)  The  Western  Dekkan  belt. 

with  the  exception  of  the  river  valleys  and  the  coastal 
plains,  the  land  is  drier  and  for  the  most  part  grass- 
covered. 

The  same  conditions  extend  over  great  distances,  and 
the  land  is  difficult  to  organize  and  keep  organized. 
The  reason  is  not  only  that  it  is  too  large  to  organize 


INDIA  253 

as  a  whole  by  people  unaccustomed  to  organization — 
that  would  not  be  wonderful ;  Europe  even  now,  though 
organized,  is  not  organized  under  one  government — but 
also  that  the  natural  divisions  are  too  large;  there  is 
no  nursery  like  Egypt  or  Babylonia  or  the  Wei  Valley, 
where  life  is  comparatively  easy,  where  the  unit  is 
small  so  that  men  might  learn  methods  of  government 
and  organization,  and  yet  where  there  is  need  for  fore- 
thought. 

Thus,  while  the  heat  and  moisture  combine  to  fix 
solar  energy  in  a  form  suitable  for  human  use,  there  is 
less  stimulus  to  save  this  energy  individually,  less 
stimulus  and  ability  to  organize  communities  to  save 
energy  or  to  protect  energy  that  had  been  saved.  Indian 
civilization  has  always  been  less  advanced  than  ex- 
ternal civilizations  in  the  genius  for  organization,  and 
whether  in  peace  or  war  immigrants  have  organized 
and  dominated  with  greater  or  less  success  the  peoples 
among  whom  they  came. 

And  whence  have  these  immigrants  come  ?  To  under- 
stand the  answer  note  the  obvious  fact  that  India  is 
a  Continental  Peninsula.  It  is,  on  the  one  hand,  far 
nearer  the  dry  heart  land  of  Central  Asia,  the  home  of 
the  nomads,  than  is  either  Europe  or  China,  and,  on  the 
other,  though  there  is  little  temptation  to  natives  of 
India  to  become  seamen  or  force  to  make  them  so,  the 
land  is  still  open  to  approach  from  the  ocean.  From 
north-east  overland,  from  north-west  overland  and  from 
the  sea,  India  has  been  entered  by  greater  or  less  numbers 
of  people. 

From  beyond  the  forested  north-eastern  border,  by 
ones  and  twos  through  that  forest  and  jungle,  men  have 
wandered  and  entered  the  jungle  lands  of  India.     These 


254      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

are  no  organizers ;  they  have  formed  no  states.  A 
forest,  as  we  have  seen,  is  at  any  time  one  of  the  great 
barriers  to  organized  movement,  and  when  those  forests 
grow  on  the  sides  of  deep  steep-sided  valleys,  one  behind 
the  other,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  north-eastern  approach 
has  never  been  effectively  used. 

It  is  very  different  with  the  north-west.  Here,  as  we 
have  seen,  it  is  dry ;  no  forests  bar  the  way,  and  India 
is  here  in  touch  with  two  virile  civilizations.  Across  the 
comparatively  narrow,  if  high,  mountain  ranges  which 
fan  out  from  the  western  end  of  the  Himalayas  lies 
the  great  plain  with  its  steppeland  peoples;  while  by 
the  northern  and  southern  mountain  edges  of  the  Iran 
plateau,  where  streams  descend  from  the  kills,  are  ways 
to  the  lands  with  old  civilizations — Persia  and  Babylonia 
and  Assyria.  Those  peoples  who  from  the  mountains 
have  looked  out  on  the  north-western  plains  of  India 
will  be  tempted  down,  for  there  may  at  times  be  felt 
there  a  refreshing  coolness  like  that  to  which  they  have 
been  accustomed,  and  for  which  they  have  been  prepared. 

From  the  north-west,  then,  into  Northern  India  have 
streamed  by  ones  and  twos,  by  thousands  and  hundreds 
of  thousands,  immigrants  and  merchants,  exiles  and 
conquerors.  Some  have  stopped  on  this  threshold. 
Assyrian  and  Greek,  long  before  the  days  of  Alexander, 
had  reached  this  land  and  come  no  farther.  Alexander 
marched  his  armies  into  the  heart  of  the  Punjab,  but 
the  unknown  conditions  made  his  soldiers  mutiny,  and 
he  retired.  Others,  however,  both  before  and  after 
Alexander,  from  the  north-west  frontier  have  spread  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent  over  the  whole  of  India. 

The  sea,  too,  is  a  way  open  to  all  who  have  been 
trained  to  use  it,  so  that,  as  far  back  as  we  can  trace, 


INDIA 


255 


the  peninsular  part  of  India  has  been  influenced  by  sea 
peoples ;  to  a  slight  extent  in  the  earlier  periods  by 
the    more   civilized    men    of   the    dry    west   and    the 


W  over  8000  feet 
WB,  over  2000  feet 


THE   APPROACHES   TO   INDIA  FROM   THE   NORTH-WEST. 

ruder  folk  of  the  wet  east,  but  in  the  later  years  the 
organizing  forces  have  come  from  overseas,  first  from 
the  south  round  the  Cape,  and  then  from  the  west. 


256      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

Those  peoples,  thru,  coming  from  north,  west  and 
from  the  sea  have,  on  the  one  hand,  usually  brought 
something  higher  than  was  already  there,  and,  on  the 
other,  have  tended  to  destroy  such  civilization  as  they 
found,  and  to  displace  to  some  extent  the  earlier 
inhabitants  of  India. 

It  is  natural  that  the  earliest  aboriginal  peoples  should 
exist  in  the  hilly  forest  and  jungle  belt  which  stretches 
across  the  northern  part  of  the  Dekkan.  Here  they 
find  not  only  protection  against  newcomers,  but  food 
to  keep  them  alive.  Those  forests  are  similar  to  the 
forests  of  Europe  in  that  they  afford  protection,  but 
differ  from  them  in  this,  that  while  life  could  be  pre- 
served in  the  colder  European  forests  only  by  the 
exercise  of  forethought  and  the  taking  of  trouble,  and 
it  paid  to  clear  portions  of  the  forest  and  to  settle, 
in  those  Indian  jungles  the  bare  necessaries  are  easily 
obtained,  and  there  is  little  stimulus  to  advance. 

To  disturb  those  aboriginal  peoples  the  stream  of 
humanity  was  flowing  from  the  north-west  even  before 
the  dawn  of  history,  whether  from  the  great  plain  or 
from  the  Iran  plateau  we  do  not  know.  These  first- 
comers  in  time  were  in  part  driven  south-eastwards, 
and  in  part  absorbed  by  successive  waves  of  races 
of  different  stocks  who  certainly  came  from  the  north 
during  the  three  thousand  years  from  2500  B.C.,  and 
who  gradually  established  themselves  in  the  northern 
plain  of  India,  leaving  the  Dekkan  from  the  forest  belt 
southwards  to  those  who  had  preceded  them.  Thus  the 
natural  differences  between  northern  plain  and  southern 
plateau  have  been  intensified  by  the  fact  that  each  is 
inhabited  by  peoples  with  different  characteristics. 

Among  those  peoples  organization  of  a  kind  occurred. 


INDIA 


257 


more  effective  in  the  north,  where  kingdoms  stood  for 
300  years,  less  effective  in  the  south ;  but  our  information 
is  significantly  lacking.  The  very  absence  of  informa- 
tion indicates  a  want  of  continuous  organization  in 
any  one  place.     What  is  fairly  clear  is  that  men  with 


INDIA  :     DISTRIBUTION    OF   HINDUS. 

The  people  of  India  are  predominantly  Hindu.     The  effect  of  the 
forest  in  obstructing  southern  movement  is  evident. 

different  characteristics  lived  and  organized  themselves 
in  ordered  communities,  and  that  the  differences  largely 
depended  on  geographical  conditions.  The  northern 
plain  is  not  all  one.  In  the  south-east,  Bengal,  it  is 
wet  and  naturally  jungle-covered:  in  the  north-west, 
the  Punjab,  it  is  dry ;  and  in  the  west,  Sind,  it  is  drier 


258      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

still,  so  that  the  Indus  is  like  the  Nile  and  receives  no 
tributaries  in  its  lower  course.  Between  these  two 
extremes  lies  an  area  roughly  corresponding  to  the  old 
.Middle  Land,  now  the  North- West  Provinces,  whose 
rainfall  is  sufficient  for  man's  needs,  but  not  excessive. 
This  is  the  region  where  to  this  day  are  the  greatest 
numbers  of  people  in  cities  and  in  the  country. 

By  a.d.  600  these  three  areas  were  more  or  less  effec- 
tively organized  by  three  groups  of  people ;  but  though 
the  three  regions  exist  and  are  markedly  different,  they 
shade  imperceptibly  into  one  another,  and  neither 
between  each  nor  within  each  are  there  any  natural 
frontiers,  since  the  inhabitants  do  not  look  on  the 
rivers  as  boundaries,  but  as  channels  of  communication 
and  beneficent  suppliers  of  water.  Hence  friction  is 
almost  unavoidable  except  under  a  stable  central  govern- 
ment. The  stable  central  government  did  not  exist, 
and  an  active  source  of  unrest  was  to  be  found  in  the 
continual  inroads  of  steppe  peoples,  those  Huns,  Tatars 
and  Scythians  who  in  the  Far  East  caused  the  same 
unsettled  conditions  directly  or  indirectly.  For  a  time, 
union  in  the  face  of  a  common  danger  could,  and  did, 
take  place,  but  the  bond  was  not  strong  enough  to  be 
permanent. 

There  was  also  a  fourth  area,  which  had  reached  a 
fairly  high  level  of  organization.  To  the  east  of  the 
Indus,  and  stretching  parallel  to  it,  is  a  belt  200  miles 
wide  and  500  or  600  miles  in  length,  which  may  fairly 
be  called  a  desert.  Its  north-eastern  portion  lies  as 
a  wedge  between  the  Punjab  and  the  Middle  Land, 
while  between  this  desert  and  the  forest  belt  across 
the  north  of  the  peninsula  is  an  area  higher  than  the 
plain,  and  yet  protected  from  attack  on  the  north-west 


INDIA  259 

and  the  south.  Less  productive  than  the  Middle  Land, 
this  land,  roughly  Rajputana,  was  less  attractive  to 
invaders  bent  on  plunder,  and  it  was  sufficiently  organ- 
ized to  withstand  for  some  centuries  such  attacks  as 
were  made  on  it. 

In  the  far  south-eastern  plains  of  the  peninsula,  too, 
remote  from  the  inroads  which  disturbed  the  northern 
plain,  enjoying  some  measure  of  protection  from  the 
sea,  the  earlier  comers  apparently  were  able  to  set  up 
a  state  which  lasted,  in  some  form  or  another,  for  more 
than  a  thousand  years ;  and,  indeed,  the  example  thus 
set  seems  to  have  been  followed  across  the  water  in 
Ceylon,  and  northwards  in  both  the  lower  and  the  upper 
valleys  of  the  Cauvery,  so  that  these  became  and  re- 
mained independent  states  for  several  hundred  years. 
Here,  however,  life  is  easy,  and  there  was  little  stimulus 
to  advance  beyond  the  stage  of  organizing  themselves 
to  resist  pressure  from  the  north;  thus  no  advance 
was  made  comparable  to  the  advance  made  in  Europe. 
They  solved  their  own  problem  of  living  well,  but  when 
they  met  a  superior  civilization  on  equal  terms  they 
could  not  withstand  it. 

With  the  advent  of  a  civilization  of  another  type,  and 
of  peoples  keeping  written  records,  we  begin  to  be  on 
more  sure  ground.  Mohammedanism  spread,  not  only 
westwards  towards  Europe  but  east  to  India.  As  a 
religion  it  replaced  forms  of  heathendom  to  which  it 
was  evidently  superior ;  those  who  brought  the  religion 
organized  lands  where  the  forms  of  government  were 
poor  and  the  government  weak.  Europe  withstood 
the  attack  for  reasons  which  have  already  been  stated. 
India  was  subject  to  the  same  attack  and  in  almost 
the  same  shape,  and  the  result  reflects  in  a  curious  way 


260      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

the  differences  between  Europe  and  India.  India  was, 
at  length,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  conquered  and 
governed  by  Mohammedans,  but  Islam  never  took  a 
real  hold  on  the  people  of  India,  and,  except  for  the 
descendants  of  those  who  were  such  when  they  entered 
India,  there  are  very  few  strict  Mohammedans  in  the 
land. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  do  more  than  point  out  that 
the  result  is  not  altogether  surprising.  Last  of  all  the 
great  religions,  it  found  other  forms  of  religion  already 
strongly  believed  and  organized  in  the  lands  of  Europe, 
India  and  China.  Other  things  being  equal,  that  which 
is  tends  to  go  on.  It  might  seem  that  the  "  tangled 
jungle  of  disorderly  superstitions,  demons,  demigods, 
household  gods,  tribal  gods,  local  gods,  universal  gods," 
which  make  up  Hinduism,  is  not  the  equal  of  Islam 
and  of  Christianity,  but  to  those  dwellers  in  this  hot  and 
for  the  most  part  wet  land,  who  are  less  able  to  see 
the  reality  behind  the  outward  appearance,  the  obvious 
fact  is  not  the  existence  of  one  supreme,  unchanging 
deity  which  is  fixed  in  the  mind  of  the  wanderer  in  the 
desert,  but  the  myriad  changing  forms  which  life  takes. 
There  is  no  ideal  unity  to  strive  after;  thus,  on  the  one 
hand,  because  the  tendency  to  division  is  emphasized 
and  there  is  nothing  which  could  unite  India  in  the 
same  way  that  the  Crusades  united  Europe,  there  is 
the  opportunity  for  a  conquering  people  to  use  the 
divisions  to  obtain  control;  but,  on  the  other,  Mo- 
hammedanism is  not  a  satisfying  explanation  of  the 
meaning  of  life  to  a  dweller  in  India,  and  he  has  not 
accepted  it. 

From  the  seventh  century  to  the  sixteenth,  then, 
Mohammedan  peoples  successively  entered  India.     The 


INDIA 


261 


Arabs,  as  was  natural,  came  first  by  land  along  the 
coast,  and  by  sea  coasting  along  the  shores,  but  they 
effected  nothing  permanent;  the  Turks  next,  from  a 
little  before  a.d.  1000  onward,  over  the  plateau  of  Iran 
and  through  Afghanistan.  In  little  over  a  century, 
largely  because  of  disputes  between  Hindu  rulers,  the 


\  # 

0 

ES3  Desert 

f£l  Mohammedans 

INDIA  :     DISTRIBUTION   OF   MOHAMMEDANS. 

The  Mohammedans  are  (i)  in  the  Indus  Valley  to  the  west  of  the 
desert;  (ii)  in  the  gateway  between  the  northern  end  of  the  desert 
and  the  Himalayas. 

whole  northern  plain  had  acknowledged  Mohammedan 
rule.  The  dry  Punjab  became  Mohammedan,  and  has 
remained  so,  as  the  stronghold  of  the  orthodox;  but 
elsewhere,  though  the  rule  was  acknowledged,  the  people 
retained  their  ancient  religions.  At  first,  such  of  the 
land  as  was  ruled  by  these  new  peoples  was  ruled  from 


262      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

centres  in  Afghanistan,  but  with  the  completion  of  the 
conquest  of  the  northern  plain  in  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century  the  real  power  became  centralized 
in  Delhi.  Now,  notice  where  Delhi  is;  Sind  and  the 
Indus  Valley,  including  the  Punjab,  though  they  have 
given  their  names  to  the  whole  land,  form  but  the  ante- 
chamber to  India,  to  which  there  is  a  comparatively 


THE   POSITION    OF   DELHI. 

Delhi  lies  at  the  exit  from  the  passage  between  the  desert 
and  the  Himalayas. 

narrow  passage,  150  miles  wide,  between  the  Indian 
desert  and  the  Himalayas.  At  the  exit  from  this  passage 
stands  Delhi.  And  here,  too,  the  actual  lowland  is 
narrowest;  running  along  the  eastern  edge  of  the 
desert  is  the  hill  land  of  the  Aravallis,  one  of  the  oldest 
mountain  ranges  of  the  world,  and  now,  like  all  old  and 
stable  mountain  ranges,  much  worn  down.     It  is  highest 


INDIA  263 

towards  the  south,  but  continues  as  an  upland  almost 
to  Delhi,  which  thus  stands  in  the  gateway  between  the 
hills  on  the  south  and  the  Himalayas  on  the  north. 
Behind  it  is  the  Mohammedan  land ;  in  front  the  land, 
never  quite  Mohammedan,  which  had  to  be  governed; 
to  it  routes  from  both  converge.  Here  is  the  natural 
capital  of  India  north  of  the  forest  belt,  so  that  again 
and  again,  from  the  time  when  the  north  was  first 
organized  by  the  Mohammedans,  till  our  own  day,  some 
spot  within  a  radius  of  a  few  miles  has  been  chosen 
as  the  organizing  centre  and  called  Delhi.  For  a  few 
years  at  a  time  Agra,  a  little  farther  within  the  plain, 
has  been  chosen  as  centre,  but  always  the  superior 
advantages  of  Delhi  have  been  recognized. 

For  long,  however,  Delhi  was  the  capital  only  of  the 
north;  it  was  not  till  the  fourteenth  century  that 
the  first  attempt  was  made  to  bring  India  south  of 
the  forest  belt  under  Mohammedan  rule.  Then  armies 
marched  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Dekkan, 
and  the  attempt  was  for  the  time  successful;  but  too 
much  had  been  undertaken,  and  by  this  time,  also,  the 
third  Mohammedan  people  had  begun  to  enter  India 
and  disturb  the  existing  conditions,  so  that  in  a  few 
years  the  remoter  provinces  threw  off  the  allegiance  to 
Delhi.  The  central  authority  had  not  only  to  fight 
against  the  natural  tendencies  to  disruption,  the  diffi- 
culty of  ruling  a  subject  people  who  looked  on  life  with 
different  eyes  from  those  of  their  conquerors,  and 
difficulties  introduced  by  the  existence  of  natural 
differences  between  Bengal  and  the  Dekkan  and  the 
North- West  Provinces ;  they  were  weakened  by  new 
immigrants,  who  again  were  finding  their  way  in  from 
the  north-west.     These  were  Tatars  from  the  steppe- 


264      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD  POWER 

lands  of  Central  Asia.  From  about  1250  onwards 
successive  bands  entered  the  Punjab,  and  at  the  same 
time  added  to  the  number  of  the  Mohammedans  in 
India,  and  increasingly  weakened  the  government 
which  they  found  there.  The  collapse  of  central  rule 
from  Delhi  was  brought  about  in  the  end  of  the  fourtccni  h 
century  by  the  devastation  caused  by  the  invasion  of 
Tamerlane,  or  Timour.  He  returned  to  Samarcand, 
but  left  India  again  split  up,  with  independent  states  in 
the  jungles  of  Bengal,  in  the  dry  Punjab,  in  the  grass- 
lands of  the  Dekkan,  and  in  the  plains  of  the  south, 
some  under  Mohammedan,  some  under  Hindu  rule. 

For  a  century  and  a  half  no  central  power  existed. 
Then  again  from  Central  Asia  descendants  of  Timour, 
the  Moguls  or  Mongols,  entered  India,  and  after  varying 
fortunes  began  in  1556  to  establish  central  rule  from 
Delhi.  Between  that  date  and  1605  Akbar — a  great 
contemporary  of  Queen  Elizabeth  —  consolidated  a 
power  which  lasted  till  it  slipped  gradually  into  the 
hands  of  the  British.  Step  by  step  he  reorganized  the 
whole  land  north  of  the  forest  belt  on  sounder  economic 
principles  than  had  been  tried  before,  but  gained  control 
of  little  else.  His  power  was  chiefly  due  to  the  fact 
that  he  was  able,  though  a  Mohammedan,  to  unite  the 
more  virile  Hindus  who  lived  in  the  harder  lands  to 
north  and  west,  and  keep  in  check  the  other  elements 
which  caused  disruption.  Fifty  years  later  his  great- 
grandson  Aurangzeb,  during  the  fifty  years  of  his  reign, 
attempted  with  more  success  to  bring  Southern  India 
under  his  rule,  and  actually  ruled  over  a  greater  portion 
of  India  than  any  of  his  successors ;  but  on  his  death 
the  old  story  was  repeated,  differences  reasserted  them- 
selves, and  in  1739  fresh  hordes  from  the  north-west 


INDIA 


265 


trooped  down  on  the  plains  of  Northern  India  to  destroy 
central  government  and  carry  off  booty. 

But  by  this  time  those  who  had  reached  India  overseas 
from  the  south  had  begun  to  make  their  power  felt. 
Portuguese  and  Dutch  had  given  place  to  French  and 


Map  to  show  the  Summer  Monsoons ,  and — P — the 
Portuguese  Route  hugging  the  East  coast  of  Africa, 
—%—the  British  sailing  route  first  to  Madras  then 
to  Caicutta.*m*^The  Northern  steam  route  to  Bombay. 

British,  and  now  the  latter  began  to  take  control  of 
the  disunited  states  which  went  to  make  up  India. 
Blown  across  the  seas  by  the  summer  monsoon,  they 
naturally  approached  the  land  from  the  south  and  south- 
east ;  the  parts  they  came  to  first  were  thus  the  plains  of 
the  Carnatic  and  of  Bengal.     In  these,  which  had  always 


2GG      GEOGRAPHY    AND    WOULD   POWER 

been  farthest  from  the  north-west  sources  of  disturbance 
and  centres  of  authority,  the  government  was  now 
centralized  In  Madras  and  Calcutta,  and  from  Madras 
and  Calcutta  English  power  spread  north-westwards 
through  the  plain  and  westwards  across  the  Dekkan. 
From  westwards  also,  first  when  India  was  approached 
by  hugging  the  east  coast  of  Africa,  and  again  since  the 
Suez  Canal  was  opened,  is  the  land  entered,  by  Surat, 
the  oldest  British  station,  and  by  Bombay,  the  oldest 


\\ 

HP     ■  ^ 

>31P 

'  r 

.-■'  is.Madras 

11 

/ 

¥ 

1 

^           if   ik~\  Ojww/j 

THE    TOSITION    OF   MADRAS. 


British  possession,  which  for  long  was  of  less  account 
than  Madras  or  Calcutta,  but  which  now  has  far  sur- 
passed the  former  and  equals  the  latter  in  population. 
Till  the  Suez  Canal  was  opened,  this  approach  was  less 
effective,  so  that  in  the  disorders  which  followed  the 
collapse  of  Mogul  rule  the  reorganization  of  the  land 
under  British  dominion  was  directed  from  Calcutta  and 
Madras,  rather  than  from  Bombay,  and  time  was  given 
for  native  confederacies  to  form  in  the  more  distant 
west  and  north-west — the  Marathas  in  the  dry  plateau 


INDIA  267 

eastwards  of  Bombay,  and  the  Sikhs  in  the  dry  land  of 
the  Punjab.  It  is  possible  that,  had  not  Britain  inter- 
vened, one  or  other  of  these  confederacies  might  have 
attempted  to  dominate  the  whole  land.  In  any  case, 
it  was  these  confederacies  which  British  power  even- 
tually had  to  face,  and  they  required  more  ability  and 
force  to  subdue  than  had  been  necessary  elsewhere. 
Far  from  the  sea  entries  of  Calcutta  and  Madras,  it  is 
little  more  than  half  a  century  since  the  Punjab  came 
under  direct  British  government.  Since  that  time, 
though  territories  have  lapsed  to  British  control  because 
of  bad  government  or  in  the  absence  of  a  direct  heir 
to  absolute  power,  there  has  been  no  extension  of 
territorial  rule  by  the  exercise  of  military  force. 

Here,  then,  is  India,  many  parts  ruled,  as  any  great 
Indian  area  always  has  been  ruled,  by  foreigners ;  organ- 
ized now  from  Calcutta,  because  there  is  the  entrance 
to  the  plain  from  the  ocean,  in  the  future  from  Delhi, 
because  alone  of  the  cities  of  India  it  has  the  claim 
that  the  land  has  been  ruled  from  there ;  with  so-called 
native  states,  which  have  no  greater  antiquity  than 
British  rule  in  India  itself — the  greater  number  of  them 
despotically  governed  by  those  who  are  as  foreign  to 
their  subjects  as  any  Englishman;  India,  supporting 
a  vast  native  population  on  the  supply  of  energy  for 
the  body  gained  from  the  produce  of  its  hot,  wet  land, 
and  yet  never  yet  able  to  govern  itself  nor  have 
a  permanent  organization  for  government ;  policed  and 
ruled  so  that  there  is  less  dissipation  of  saved  energy 
than  ever  before  since  internal  anarchy  has  been  ended, 
and  since  the  north-west,  now  approached  not  only  from 
Calcutta  but  by  railway  up  the  length  of  the  Indus 
Valley,  has  been  held  strongly  against  any  danger  of 


268      GEOGRAPHY    AM)   WORLD   POWER 

disturbance  or  domination  from  Afghanistan  or  beyond. 
An  advance  has  been  made.  And  yet  the  British  rulers 
are  rulers  merely;  t he  conditions  of  life  in  India  are 
so  different  from  those  in  Britain  that  they  never 
intend  to  remain  ;  they  exile  themselves  to  India  for  a 
time,  and  return  "  home  "  when  their  work  is  finished. 
They  do  not  even  settle  as  the  Mohammedan  conquerors 
settled  at  Delhi,  and  if  they  did  settle  they  would  be 
absorbed  or  overwhelmed  as  surely  as  other  immigrants 
have  been  overwhelmed  or  absorbed.  And,  further, 
though  the  steppe  peoples  of  the  plain  beyond  Afghan- 
istan are  tamed  and  organized  under  the  power  of 
Russia,  yet  the  way  is  as  open  as  it  has  ever  been,  and 
organized  attack  is  no  less  dangerous  than  the  invasion 
of  loosely  united  hordes. 

The  geographical  controls  still  remain.  The  hot,  wet 
continental  peninsula  is  still  open  to  the  sea  and  open 
to  the  north-west.  Europeans  from  overseas,  in  their 
northern  land  with  its  diverse  and  difficult  geographical 
conditions,  have  learned  to  solve  ever  harder  and 
harder  problems;  they  have  learned  how  to  approach 
and  how  to  govern  India,  but  they  are  unaccustomed 
to  the  conditions  of  life  in  India  itself,  where  the  in- 
habitants, while  able  to  obtain  bodily  energy  easily 
and  to  increase  in  numbers,  yet  find  that  life  so  easy 
that  there  is  little  stimulus  to  save  and  control  energy 
on  a  large  scale.  The  European  does  not  stay  in  India, 
and  the  native  is  not  yet  able  to  govern  the  land  as 
effectively  as  the  European. 


CHAPTER  XV 

THE  AFRICAN  GRASSLANDS  :     SPHERES  OF  INFLUENCE 

It  is  now  evident  how  the  general  course  of  history 
in  Europe  and  Asia  has  been  controlled  by  the  geo- 
graphical conditions,  and  specially  how  three  types  of 
civilization  have  gradually  been  evolved  on  the  margin 
of  the  great  plain.  In  all  the  story  so  far,  we  have 
taken  account  in  Africa  only  of  a  narrow  strip  along  the 
Mediterranean ;  of  the  rest  it  has  not  been  necessary  to 
say  anything  except  to  show  that  the  discovery  of  the 
way  to  the  Indies  by  the  Cape  was  one  of  the  out- 
standing facts  of  history. 

Here,  then,  is  a  set  of  apparently  extraordinary  facts. 
While  history  began  in  Egypt,1  while  many  of  the  early 
scenes  were  enacted  on  the  northern  shores  of  Africa, 
yet  the  rest  of  the  continent  was  unknown  to  the 
civilized  world  till  within  the  last  five  centuries.  Not 
only  so,  but  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  way  to  the 

1  The  reader  must  not  forget  that  before  Egyptian  times, 
for  thousands  of  years,  man  had  been  advancing  in  knowledge 
of  how  to  use  and  save  energy  under  diverse  conditions  of  human 
life  on  the  earth.  There  have  been  many  attempts  to  obtain 
some  idea  of  how  long  he  had  been  engaged  in  this  toilsome 
ascent ;  estimates  vaiy  between  tens  of  thousands  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  years.  Our  knowledge  is  so  scanty,  however, 
that  it  is  not  woith  while  to  discuss  what  are  little  more  than 
theories ;  the  growth  of  civilization  in  Egypt  forms  a  striking 
chapter  with  which  to  begin. 

269 


270      GEOGRAPHY    AND    WORLD   POWER 

Indies  round  the  coasts  of  Africa  had  been  discovered 
before  Columbus  Bailed  across  the  Atlantic,  yet  Africa 
remained  the  dark  continent  till  the  last  half-century, 
while  Spanish  and  Portuguese  America  was  conquered 
and  Northern  America  had  become  the  seat  of  a  great 
civilization  ranking  with  that  of  Europe. 

We  have  spoken,  in  Chapter  II,  of  the  absence  of 
stimulus  to  native  races  to  save  energy  in  equatorial 
Africa;  let  us  now  consider  the  facts  more  in  detail, 
to  see  whether  they  give  any  clue  to  this  extraordinary 
history. 

The  relief  map  tells  us  that  Africa  as  a  whole  stands 
high  above  sea-level,  and  that  the  margins  descend 
steeply  to  great  depths.  If  you  consult  maps  which 
show  variations  in  temperature  through  the  year,  you 
will  see  that  no  part  of  Africa  at  sea-level  is  cold;  at 
any  time  of  the  year  most  of  the  land  is  warm,  and 
considerable  areas  are  hot.  The  area  of  greatest  heat 
is,  however,  not  constant,  but  there  is  a  swing  with  the 
sun  north  and  south  of  the  equator,  the  heat  from  a 
given  pencil  of  rays  being  spread  over  less  area  when 
it  is  received  on  a  surface  at  right-angles  to  the  axis 
of  the  pencil  than  in  any  other  position ;  or,  in  other 
words,  more  heat  is  received  on  a  given  area  when 
the  rays  are  vertical  than  when  they  are  received  at 
an  angle.  Partly  owing  to  the  less  average  height  of 
the  land  in  the  north,  partly  owing  to  the  greater 
amount  of  land  not  only  in  North  Africa  itself  but  also 
to  north  and  north-east  of  the  continent,  the  higher 
temperature  is  found  in  the  north. 

Connected  in  some  way  with  this  swing  of  the  heat 
belt  is  the  well-marked  north  and  south  swing  of  the 
rain  zones  seen  in  the  accompanying  maps.     Rain  is 


October. 


November. 

AFRICA  :    KAINFALL. 


December. 


The  shaded  areas  show  where  more  than  four  inches  of  rain  falls. 
There  is  a  seasonal  swing  northwards  in  the  northern  summer, 
southwards  in  the  southern  summer. 

271 


212     (;k(h;i:ai'Iiv  and  would  POWEB 

caused  by  the  cooling  of  air,  which  is  forced  to  rise 
to  regions  when-  it  expands,  and  in  so  doing  reduces 
its  temperature.  This  rising  may  be  caused  by  meeting 
with  an  obstruction  such  as  a  landslope  up  which  it 
must  go.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  western  edge  of 
the  Dckkan  is  so  wet  in  summer,  for  the  south-west  winds 
are  compelled  to  ascend  and  cool  themselves  by  expand- 
ing. The  westerly  winds  also  blowing  against  the  high- 
lands of  Britain  cause  the  west  to  be  wet,  while  areas 
equally  high  but  farther  to  the  east  are  comparatively 
dry,  for  there  is  no  further  ascent.  It  is  not  only  land, 
however,  which  causes  wind  to  rise ;  a  current  of  heavier 
air  pushing  under  another  which  is  lighter,  usually 
because  it  is  warmer,  causes  the  latter  to  rise,  and  again 
this  must  cool  itself.  This  interference  of  currents  can 
be  the  only  cause  of  rain  over  the  ocean,  or  over  land 
so  flat  that  air  is  not  forced  upwards  merely  by  flowing 
over  it,  and  it  may  of  course  be  a  contributory  cause 
of  rain  on  slopes  also.  The  rainfall  over  the  warmer 
part  of  Africa  may  be  caused  somewhat  in  the  same  way. 
The  air  in  the  equatorial  belt  is  heated,  and  cooler  winds 
from  north  and  south  may  press  in  under  it :  these  tend- 
ing to  keep  moving  in  the  same  direction  in  space,  are 
turned  round  so  as  to  come  in  general  from  some  easterly 
direction.  But  it  is  by  no  means  certain  that  conditions 
are  so  simple  as  this ;  there  are,  on  the  one  hand,  indica- 
tions that  the  air  in  equatorial  regions  sinks  and  rises  in 
comparatively  thin  streaks  rather  than  in  great  masses, 
and,  on  the  other,  investigations  of  the  upper  air  are 
showing  that  a  good  many  beliefs  as  to  the  relation  be- 
tween pressure,  winds  and  rainfall  founded  on  informa- 
tion obtained  near  ground-level  must  be  revised  in  the 
light  of  fuller  knowledge. 


THE   AFRICAN  GRASSLANDS  273 

Whatever  be  the  cause  of  the  variation,  there  is  no 
doubt  that  there  is  a  north  and  south  swing  of  the  wet 
and  dry  belts,  so  that  there  are  on  the  west  seven 
climatic  zones  :  there  is  a  narrow  strip  along  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  which  has  most  rain  in  winter; 
then  follows  a  broader  belt,  the  Sahara,  on  which  rain 
is  rare,  stretching  from  east  to  west  across  the  continent 
with  the  northern  tropic  as  axis ;  this  is  succeeded 
by  a  somewhat  narrower  belt,  the  Sudan,  with  a  wet 
summer  but  a  dry  winter;  the  equatorial  regions  have 
constant  rain,  greatest  when  the  sun  is  overhead  at 
midday;  southwards  the  zones  are  repeated,  but  it 
must  be  noticed  that  it  is  "  summer  "  in  the  North 
when  it  is  "  winter  "  in  the  South,  and  that  the  "  zones  " 
have  little  extent  in  longitude,  partly  because  of  the 
smaller  area  of  land,  and  partly  because  there  is  an  ocean 
to  the  east.  The  terms  "  winter  "  and  "  zone  "  are  in 
this  case  somewhat  misleading.  The  dry  area  in  the 
south— the  Kalahari — does  have  considerably  more  rain 
than  the  Sahara,  and  the  area  which  has  "  winter  " 
rains  is  only  a  small  region  in  the  extreme  south-west. 
On  the  east,  north  of  the  equator,  the  influence  of  the 
great  land  mass  to  eastwards  is  such  that  the  west- 
coast  zones  are  continued  right  across  the  continent. 
South  of  the  equator  the  east  coast  has  rains  in  summer. 

The  effect  of  this  distribution  of  rainfall  on  the 
vegetation  is  very  striking.  Under  the  influence  of  the 
heavy  rains  and  intense  heat,  great  forests  have  grown 
on  either  side  of  the  equator,  occupying  a  large  part 
of  the  Congo  Basin  and  the  shores  of  the  Gulf  of  Guinea, 
and  a  similar  though  not  so  dense  forest  fringes  the  coast 
of  the  Indian  Ocean  from  Zanzibar  southwards ;  where 
rain  falls  so  seldom  as  to  be  extraordinary,  stretches 

T 


i'7t       CKnclIAI'IlY    AND    WORLD    POWER 

the  great  desert  of  the  Sahara ;  but  elsewhere,  owing  to 
the  lack  of  rain  at  some  season,  there  is  an  extensive 
grassland,  park-like  in  some  parts,  tending  to  desert 
in  others,  supplying  food  for  animals  which  live  on 
grass,  especially  all  kinds  of  cattle  and  deer,  which  at 
the  same  time  can  stand  considerable  heat.  This  grass- 
land stretches  from  the  western  Sudan  right  across 
Africa,  and  southwards  almost  to  the  Cape,  filling  almost 
the  whole  of  the  continent  south  of  the  equatorial  forest. 
Here,  then,  are  the  great  geographical  factors  which 
have  influenced  man,  civilized,  semi-civilized,  barbarian 
and  savage.  The  great  equatorial  forest  is  no  place 
where  civilization  may  grow,  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  it  is  like  all  forest  in  that  it  hinders  the 
movement  of  organized  bands  of  men  coming  in  peace 
or  war.  In  Egypt,  protected  by  the  desert  on  either 
side,  with  a  double  water-supply  from  the  equatorial 
region  of  constant  rain  and  Abyssinia  with  summer 
rain,  men  might  first  find  how  to  save  energy  on  a  great 
scale,  and  we  have  seen  that  they  did  so.  On  the  great 
flat  expanse  of  grassland  men  could  wander  as  do  the 
steppe  peoples  of  Euro- Asia,  but  while  these  are  essential 
similarities,  due  to  the  similarities  in  the  conditions, 
there  are  no  less  essential  differences,  because  the 
differences  in  the  conditions  are  great.  In  Africa  it  is 
never  cold ;  no  preparations  need  be  made  to  withstand 
the  cold;  clothing,  a  necessity  of  the  steppe-dweller, 
is  by  no  means  essential,  and  there  is  the  less  necessity 
to  save.  The  grasslands,  except  along  the  borders  of 
the  desert,  are  not  so  dry  as  are  the  steppes  of  Asia, 
and  even  the  dry  lands  are  not  so  compact.  The 
result,  on  the  one  hand,  is  that  there  is  a  greater  possi- 
bility of  cultivating  the  soil  and  less  need  for  living  a 


THE  AFRICAN   GRASSLANDS  275 

purely  pastoral  life,  and,  on  the  other,  the  more  purely 
pastoral  tribes  tend  to  dominate  the  agricultural  as 
the  wandering  Arabs  dominate  those  of  the  oases,  and 
as  the  nomads  of  Central  Asia  dominated  the  farmers 
of  the  margin  lands  till  a  few  centuries  ago.  There  is 
thus  less  necessity  to  be  hardy,  and  there  is  a  greater 
possibility,  almost  amounting  to  a  certainty,  that  the 
more  powerful  pastoral  tribes,  being  the  less  civilized, 
will  prevent  the  growth  of  any  habits  of  saving  among 
those  whom  they  dominate. 

Indeed,  the  history  of  Africa  south  of  the  Sahara, 
in  so  far  as  it  may  be  said  to  have  a  history  at  all, 
consists  in  the  story  of  the  comparatively  slow  move- 
ments of  the  different  pastoral  tribes  over  those  grass- 
lands, settling  for  a  time  in  certain  areas,  undertaking  a 
little  agriculture,  and  establishing  a  military  organiza- 
tion by  which  they  were  able  either  to  exact  tribute 
from  subject  tribes  or  to  exterminate  them,  but 
never  founding  anything  resembling  a  civilized  state. 
Even  so,  the  existence  of  the  ancient  civilization  to 
the  north,  and  of  peoples  in  touch  with  that  civiliza- 
tion, especially  on  either  side  of  the  Red  Sea,  seems 
always  to  have  had  an  effect.  The  slow  movements  of 
these  pastoral  tribes  appear  to  have  originated  almost 
invariably  somewhere  in  the  north-east,  in  touch  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  with  that  civilization,  and  to 
have  taken  two  main  routes,  westwards  through  the 
Sudan  and  southwards  over  the  high  plateau,  driving 
the  earlier  peoples,  such  as  Bushmen  and  Hottentots, 
still  farther  southwards  to  the  Cape,  or  into  the  forest, 
and  giving  their  names  in  more  or  less  mutilated  form 
to  the  lands  in  which  Europeans  found  them.  Zulu 
and  Matabili,   Mashona   and   Masai,   have   all   moved 


276      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

southwards  within  the  last  thousand  years  or  so  into 
the  regions  now  called  after  them. 

In  the  Sudan  conditions  have  been  somewhat  different . 
for  there  men  have  been  more  directly  and  continuously 
stimulated  by  those  living  by  the  southern  shores  of 
the  Mediterranean,  who,  both  before  and  after  the 
spread  of  Islam,  found  their  way  in  small  numbers 
across  the  desert,  and  mixing  with  the  negro  population 
introduced  ideas  of  how  to  save  energy  in  many  ways. 
Here  on  the  wetter  park-like  lands  cotton  is  cultivated, 
and  dyed  with  indigo;  here  are  stone  dwellings  and 
walled  cities  containing  thousands  of  people,  and  here 
the  half-breed  descendants  of  northern  immigrants  have 
founded  states  which  have  lasted  for  centuries  at  a 
time.  But  that  is  the  most  that  can  be  said.  This 
type  of  civilization  at  its  best  is  less  effective  than 
that  by  which  it  was  stimulated.  On  the  eastern 
coast,  also,  Arab  influence  within  historic  times  has 
been  felt ;  states  have  been  established ;  but  this  in- 
fluence [has  not  been  used  for  the  saving  of  energy, 
rather  the  reverse. 

Within  the  borders  of  the  forest,  in  places  where  it  is 
dense  enough  to  form  a  protection  against  the  inroads 
of  pastoral  peoples,  but  where  it  is  not  yet  so  thick  as 
to  crush  initiative,  it  is  possible  that  some  tribes,  origin- 
ally stimulated  by  the  northern  civilizations,  have  found 
refuge,  and  have  been  able  to  work  out  their  own 
methods  of  living  well,  but  these  are  exceptional;  in 
most  cases  very  little  advance  has  been  made. 

It  is  thus  fairly  evident  that  little  may  be  expected 
from  the  natives  of  Africa;  we  have  yet  to  notice 
why  it  remained  so  long  unknown  to  civilized  peoples. 
The  control  was  twofold.     On  the  one  hand,  there  were 


THE  AFRICAN  GRASSLANDS  277 

positive  difficulties  in  the  way  of  exploration  and  settle- 
ment, and,  on  the  other,  there  was  an  absence  of  induce- 
ments which  would  appeal  to  civilized  men.  The 
difficulties  are  obvious ;  deserts  and  forests  are  met  with 
on  the  west  coasts  from  Morocco  to  south  of  the  Congo, 
except  where  the  Sudan  comes  to  the  sea  in  Senegambia, 
and  here  were  some  of  the  earliest  attempts  at  settlement. 
South  of  the  Congo  the  driest  and  most  desert  part 
of  the  Kalahari  fringes  the  coast,  and  on  the  opposite 
eastern  coast  is  a  forest  land.  Coming  from  oversea, 
explorers  travelled  in  boats  and  looked  for  river  mouths 
up  which  they  might  sail;  but  in  the  deep  sea  which 
surrounds  Africa  tides  have  little  rise  and  fall,  and 
rivers,  where  there  is  enough  rainfall  to  allow  water  to 
run  off,  come  to  the  sea  in  deltas  difficult  to  traverse. 
The  rivers  themselves,  except  where  they  pass  through 
regions  of  constant  rain,  are  mostly  unsuited  for  naviga- 
tion, being  alternately  rushing  torrents  and  series  of 
water  holes,  and  even  where  navigable  they  reach  their 
deltas  after  descending  by  waterfalls  and  rapids  from 
the  high  plateaus  inland.  The  lands  themselves  are 
hot,  and  in  many  places  fever-stricken;  they  are  un- 
familiar, unlike  home,  and  white  men  would  not  settle 
in  them.  Nor  was  there  much  inducement  to  explore ; 
in  Africa  there  were  no  tales  of  stores  of  hoarded  gold, 
nor  of  the  wealth  and  spices  of  the  Indies.  Men  passed 
by  these  inhospitable  shores,  and  continued  on  their 
journeys  to  lands  where  wealth  was  known. 

And  yet  the  geographical  conditions  have  controlled 
even  the  white  man's  advance.  In  some  places  rather 
than  in  others  settlements  were  made;  in  some  direc- 
tions rather  than  in  others  these  settlements  expanded. 
The  reasons  for  the  settlements  were  partly  local ;  partly 


278      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

they  were  related  to  other  facts  in  other  lands.  There 
were  early  settlements  by  the  Senegal  and  Gambia, 
because  these  were  reached  early,  and  because  here, 
between  desert  and  forest,  conditions  were  somewhat 
more  favourable  than  elsewhere.  A  similar  position 
to  the  south  on  the  coast  of  Angola  was  early  occupied 
by  the  Portuguese.  The  Cape  apparently  possessed  no 
advantages ;  there  were  neither  spices  nor  treasure  nor 
slaves,  and  little  was  to  be  made  of  it,  so  that  the  Portu- 
guese preferred  to  occupy  the  coasts  farther  north, 
nearer  to  India,  the  goal  of  the  voyager,  thus  leaving 
the  Cape  open  for  the  Dutch. 

The  control  passed  to  Britain  in  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  when  all  Europe  was  under  the 
heel  of  Napoleon,  and  it  was  imperative  that  outlying 
areas  which  might  be  used  as  French  bases  should  be 
seized  and  held.  It  was  found,  on  the  one  hand,  that 
the  climate  of  the  district  round  the  Cape  was  not  so 
greatly  different  from  that  of  Britain,  and,  on  the  other, 
that  it  was  the  most  convenient  calling  place  on  the  way 
to  India,  by  a  route  unlike  that  used  by  the  Portuguese, 
who  hugged  the  coast.  Trusting  to  the  permanence 
of  the  westerlies  and  the  trade  winds,  men  accustomed 
to  the  sea  did  not  waste  time  beating  against  the  winds, 
but  used  them  to  the  best  advantage,  and  took  the 
course  shown  on  the  map  (p.  265).  which  brought  them 
close  to  land  only  at  the  south  of  Africa. 

Thus,  as  always,  history  and  geography  combined  to 
control  man's  choice  of  settlements.  Farther  advance 
was  equally  controlled  by  what  was  and  by  what  had 
been.  The  decline  of  Portugal  from  its  position  as  a 
Great  Power  helped  to  prevent  the  growth  of  Portuguese 
colonies,  while  the  naturally  unhealthy  coast  of  Portu- 


SPHERES   OF  INFLUENCE  279 

guese  East  Africa,  fringed  as  we  have  seen  by  a  damp 
forest,  held  out  little  inducement  to  extensive  settle- 
ment. From  the  Senegal  the  French  did  advance 
eastwards,  and  passing  over  to  the  Upper  Niger  held  a 
region  which  helped  to  consolidate  their  dominion  in 
North  Africa.  But  the  most  effective  advance  was 
naturally  made  northwards  from  the  Cape  over  the 
highest  part  of  the  comparatively  cool,  open  plateau, 
the  most  suitable  part  of  the  continent  for  men  accus- 
tomed to  such  conditions  as  are  found  in  Europe.  At 
the  Cape  the  Portuguese  did  not  land  at  all ;  the  Dutch, 
keen  to  make  money,  but  not  possessed  by  the  colonizing 
instinct,  simply  held  the  Cape  as  a  station  on  the  way 
to  the  Indies,  where  wealth  might  be  obtained ;  few  men 
could  be  spared  from  home,  and  those  who  did  come 
always  expected  to  go  back.  The  British  did  more  : 
from  the  first,  settlements  were  made  and  expansion 
took  place ;  they  met  the  ancient  inhabitants,  Bushmen 
and  Hottentots ;  they  met  the  more  recent  arrivals,  Zulus 
and  Matabili,  and  compelled  them  to  live  in  peace ;  and 
at  last  they  brought  under  one  government  the  descen- 
dants of  the  original  Dutch,  who,  unaccustomed  to 
centralized  rule,  had  migrated  always  farther  north. 
With  the  control  of  lands  more  or  less  suitable  for  white 
occupation,  there  came  the  dream  of  British  sovereignty 
stretching  from  north  to  south.  Once  this  claim  was 
challenged  when  it  clashed  with  French  claims  to  rule 
a  territory  stretching  across  the  breadth  of  the  continent ; 
but  at  Fashoda,  or  rather  in  the  English  Channel  where 
lay  the  superior  fleet,  it  was  decided  that  Nile  waters, 
whether  reached  from  Alexandria  or  from  the  east  coast, 
should  remain  under  one  control.  Once  again  it  was 
challenged,  and  Germany  made  good  a   claim  to  the 


280      GEOGRAPJ1Y    AND    WORLD   POWER 

control  of  a  territory  also  reached  from  the  east 
coast,  which,  marching  with  that  now  controlled  by 
Belgium,  divides  the  British  dominion  of  the  south 
from  that  of  the  north,  but  does  not  prevent  the 
possibility  of  a  railway  over  the  plateau  from  the 
(ape  to  Cairo. 

All  along  the  Guinea  coast,  castles  or  forts  or  fortified 
stations  had  been  held  by  various  nationalities  from  the 
time  of  the  first  exploration,  but  these  led  to  no  effective 
advance,  for  the  forest  lay  behind,  dense,  difficult  to 
penetrate,  because  of  the  purely  physical  obstacles,  and 
made  trebly  difficult  by  the  presence  of  fevers  and 
savage  men.  Only  in  these  latter  years  has  that  forest 
been  penetrated,  and  the  land  of  half-breed  Mohammedan 
negroes  to  the  north  been  controlled.  As  we  might 
expect,  that  land  was  first  reached  by  the  least  difficult 
natural  way,  the  one  great  river,  the  Niger;  it  is  now 
being  organized,  connected  by  railway  with  the  coast,  and 
brought  into  the  world  system  as  a  region  which  may 
supply  cotton  for  European  manufacture,  while  the 
forest  districts  of  the  Niger  Delta  still  remain  almost 
unexplored. 

The  land  south  of  the  equator  corresponding  to  this 
Sudan  region  of  the  Senegal  and  the  Upper  and  Middle 
Niger  is  also  acquiring  importance.  As  land  farther 
and  farther  north  from  the  southern  coast  of  Africa  has 
been  organized,  it  has  been  increasingly  expensive  and 
wasteful  to  keep  up  communications  only  by  a  lengthy 
railway  to  a  part  in  the  far  south ;  the  open  plateau 
lies  nearer  the  east  than  the  west,  and  is  separated  from 
the  west  for  some  distance  by  the  dry  area  of  the  Kala- 
hari, so  that  ports  farther  and  farther  north  on  the 
eastern  coast  have  become  of  importance;    but  each  of 


SPHERES   OF  INFLUENCE  281 

these  is  also  successively  farther  and  farther  from 
Europe,  and  it  is  now  becoming  probable  that  the  region 
of  the  Upper  Zambezi  may  be  more  economically 
reached  from  that  west  coast  claimed  centuries  ago  by 
the  Portuguese. 

Thus  Africa,  long  occupied  only  by  barbarous  peoples, 
unknown  and  unexplored  because  of  the  geographical 
conditions,  has  lately  naturally  and  inevitably  been 
partitioned  among  the  peoples  that  matter,  and  those 
who  matter  most  have  had  most  say  in  the  partitioning. 
But  still  the  native  races  remain ;  they  are  still  for  the 
most  part  pastoral,  and  their  treatment  constitutes  a 
problem  which  is  not  yet  solved. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE   NEW    WORLD:    HISTORY    BEFORE   COLUMBUS: 
SPANISH    AMERICA 

So  far  we  have  confined  our  attention  almost  entirely 
to  the  Old  World;  we  have  seen  how  three  types  of 
civilization  have  been  evolved  on  the  outer  margin  of 
that  great  central  plain  which  has  affeeted  them  all. 
The  men  of  Europe,  in  their  endeavour  to  acquire  and 
save  more  energy,  made  direct  contact  with  the  others, 
and  incidentally  discovered  America.  The  question 
now  arises,  Why  was  it  that  Europeans  discovered 
America  before  the  Americans  discovered  Europe  ? 
Or  we  may  put  the  question  in  another  form,  and  ask, 
Why  were  the  natives  of  America  undesirous  or  incapable 
of  controlling  energy  outside  their  own  land  ? 

An  examination  of  the  geographical  facts  supplies  the 
answer ;  we  shall  see  that  the  conditions  were,  and  are, 
so  different  that  the  course  of  the  history  was  likely 
to  be  quite  different  also. 

What,  then,  are  the  geographical  facts  that  have 
been  of  importance  ?  One  of  the  most  important,  if 
not  the  most  important,  is  just  the  very  obvious  one 
that  the  New  World  is  smaller  than  the  Old,  and  spe- 
cially that  there  is  very  little  land  in  the  desert  belts. 
The  conditions  are  comparable  with  those  which  exist  in 
South  Africa :  owing  to  the  small  amount  of  land  there, 

282 


THE  NEW  WORLD  283 

and  the  absence  of  land  to  the  east,  there  is  little  that 
can  be  called  desert,  and  therefore  no  place  where  an 
early  civilization  might  develop.  The  existence  of  the 
desert  area  in  the  north  of  the  Old  World,  within  which 
developed  the  early  civilizations,  was  due  in  part  to 
the  fact  that  there  was  a  great  compact  mass  of  land, — 
and  the  central  portion  of  a  vast  extent  of  land  is  bound 
to  be  drier  than  the  margins, — and  in  part  to  the  existence 
of  a  great  stretch  of  land  in  North  Africa  lying  in  the 
trade-wind  zone,  and  so  situated  that  it  had  the  great 
heart  land  of  Asia  to  north-eastwards. 

Now  in  the  New  World  there  is  not  a  great  compact 
mass  of  land  at  all  comparable  with  that  of  the  Old 
World;  both  the  areas  in  the  latitudes  of  the  desert 
belts  are  of  slight  extent  east  and  west;  that  in  the 
north  is  the  narrowest  part  of  the  continent,  and  that  in 
the  south  is  about  the  breadth  of  Africa  in  the  same 
latitude ;  more  important  still,  there  is  no  land  to  the 
eastward  of  either.  Instead  of  being  dry  regions,  they 
are,  in  fact,  wet  on  their  eastern  sides,  where  the  trade 
winds  strike  first.  Thus  the  really  desert  areas  are 
naturally  small  in  extent.  In  South  America  they 
occupy  only  a  narrow  strip  along  the  west  coast;  in 
North  America  the  arid  regions,  though  not  quite  so 
narrow,  are  still  small.  The  extent  in  each  case  is 
modified  by  the  relief,  which  also  helps  to  determine 
the  extent  of  other  types  of  region. 

The  configuration  of  the  lands  in  the  New  World  in 
its  general  outline  is  very  simple,  though  of  course 
subdivision  is  necessary  if  we  would  understand  how  it 
has  acted  as  a  control.  In  each  continent  there  are 
three  great  highland  areas  separated  by  lowland.  Along 
the  west  coast  run  the  Cordillera,  broader  in  North 


28 1      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

America,  especially  in  the  middle  section,  narrower  and 
higher  in  South  America,  bordered  in  each  case  by 
ranges  of  higher  mountains;  the  Rocky  Mountains 
being  merely  the  series  of  ranges  which  mark  the  eastern 
edge  of  the  broader  middle  section  of  the  Cordillera  of 
North  America.  To  the  east  of  the  Cordillera  in  each 
continent  are  two  much  older  highlands  worn  down  to 
a  lower  level — in  South  America  the  plateaus  of  Guiana 
and  Brazil,  and  in  North  America  the  Appalachian 
Ji itrhhi nds  and  the  great  Laurentian  "shield,"  which 
is,  in  fact,  so  low  that  Hudson  Bay,  the  central  area, 
is  invaded  by  the  sea,  and  it  is  only  by  a  stretch  of 
the  imagination  that  we  can  call  it  a  plateau  at  all. 
The  Cordillera  has,  in  fact,  been  ridged  up  against  the 
hard  old  rock  masses  to  the  east,  and  where  these  are 
absent,  in  the  region  of  the  West  Indies,  the  Cordillera 
spread  out  and  form  more  widely  separated  ranges, 
which  in  parts  are  so  low  that  they  are  either  just  above 
sea-level,  as  in  Central  America,  or  have  only  their 
higher  parts  above  water,  as  in  the  great  curve  of  the 
West  Indian  Islands,  or  are  entirely  submerged. 

Between  these  highlands  is  a  lowland  which  spreads  out 
in  each  continent  in  three  directions.  In  North  America 
its  greatest  extent  is  in  the  plain  which  stretches  between 
the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Appalachians,  lowest 
along  the  north  and  south  axis  where  the  Mississippi 
runs,  and  rising  gently  to  east  and  west  with  a  slope  im- 
perceptible to  the  eye,  and  yet  so  continuous  that  when 
it  reaches  the  abruptly  rising  mountains  on  the  west,  the 
surface  is  already  a  mile  high.  Between  the  Laurentian 
shield  of  hard  old  rock  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  Appa- 
lachians and  Cordillera  on  the  other,  are  the  narrower 
lowlands   through    which  the   St.    Lawrence   and   the 


THE  NEW  WORLD  285 

Mackenzie  find  their  ways  to  the  Atlantic  and  the 
Arctic.  In  South  America  the  great  lowland  is  that 
which  lies  on  either  side  of  the  equator,  drained  by  the 
Amazon  and  its  tributaries,  with  a  comparatively  narrow 
opening  eastwards  between  the  plateaus  of  Guiana  and 
Brazil.  Southwards  a  plain  extends  with  the  Andes 
and  the  plateau  of  Brazil  on  the  west  and  the  east; 
while  northwards,  between  the  north-eastward  curve  of 
the  Andes  and  the  plateau  of  Guiana,  is  a  much  smaller 
plain  through  which  the  Orinoco  flows. 

Several  results  follow  from  the  way  in  which  the  extent 
of  the  climatic  provinces  is  determined  by  this  con- 
figuration. The  equatorial  forests  of  the  hot,  wet 
Amazon  plain  cover  a  vast  area,  stretching  almost 
across  the  continent,  and  running  up  the  eastern  slopes 
of  the  Andes.  On  the  other  hand,  the  desert  of  South 
America,  shut  in  between  the  Andes  and  the  sea,  is  of 
necessity  very  narrow.  The  region  which  may  be  said 
to  correspond  to  the  Sudan  is  the  savanna  land  of  the 
Orinoco,  comparatively  small  in  extent,  and  with  a 
climate  which  differs  from  that  of  the  African  Sudan  in 
several  important  particulars;  the  same  may  be  said 
of  the  savannas  of  the  interior  highlands  of  Brazil, 
which  are  in  addition  composed  of  hard  old  rock  from 
which  such  water  as  does  fall  runs  off  quickly. 

In  North  America  the  most  arid  region  is  on  the  high- 
land to  the  west  of  the  southern  portion  of  the  Rockv 
Mountains.  Such  streams  as  flow  westwards  from  these 
dry  heights  run  in  deep  narrow  channels  far  below  the 
normal  level  of  the  land,  and  in  fact  help  to  make  it  drier 
than  it  otherwise  would  be.  South  of  this  desert  the 
whole  land  narrows,  and  the  mountain  borders  approach 
each  other  in  the  great  peak  of  Orizaba.     The  eastern 


286      GEOGRAPHY   AND  WORLD  POWER 

mountain  edges,  drenched  by  the  rains  of  the  trade  winds, 
are  wet  and  densely  forested,  but  the  Mexican  plateau 
between  the  mountains  is  comparatively  dry,  receiving 
in  winter  very  little  rain  for  Borne  months.  There  is 
also  a  dry  region,  on  which  grass  grows,  on  the  high 
plains  to  the  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  this  is  what 
corresponds  to  the  steppes  of  Asia,  but  obviously  it  is 
not  comparable  in  extent,  for  to  north  and  east  the  land 
was  covered  by  forest,  coniferous  in  the  north,  tem- 
perate towards  the  Atlantic,  and  almost  tropical  along 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  South  America,  the  only  region 
which  may  be  said  to  correspond  to  the  steppes  is  the 
land  which  lies  to  the  east  of  the  Andes,  in  what  is  now 
the  Argentine. 

Thus  the  places  corresponding  to  those  on  the  Old 
World  where  under  simple  conditions  men  were  induced 
or  compelled  to  make  some  effort  to  sustain  life  are,  in 
the  New  World,  largely  lacking  in  those  qualities  which 
would  make  them  nurseries  of  civilizations.  There  is 
no  great  river  crossing  a  great  desert,  at  one  season 
bringing  abundance  of  water  for  growth  of  crops  and 
at  another  dwindling  away  so  that  vegetation  becomes 
parched  and  dry.  There  is  no  land  where  at  once  it 
is  warm  and  life  is  in  consequence  comparatively  easy, 
where  there  is  a  strong  incentive  to  think  ahead  and  save 
stores  of  food  and  other  forms  of  natural  wealth,  and 
where  there  is  a  protection  against  the  inroads  of  those 
who  might  seize  the  wealth  which  has  been  stored. 

Even  the  steppelands  are  of  slight  extent,  and  the 
peoples  characteristic  of  the  steppes  of  the  Old  World 
are  conspicuous  by  their  absence ;  this  is  partly  due  to 
another  lack  which  the  New  World  suffers  in  contrast 
v/ith  the  Old ;  none  of  the  animals  which  feed  on  grass 


THE  NEW  WORLD  287 

and  have  been  domesticated  in  Europe,  Asia  and 
Africa,  are  natives  of  North  or  of  South  America. 
There  were  no  camels,  horses,  asses,  sheep  or  goats ; 
and,  more  important  than  all,  cattle,  representing  one 
of  the  earliest  forms  of  saved  energy,  were  entirely 
absent  before  they  were  introduced  from  Europe. 
There  was  no  beast  of  burden  to  save  human  energy 
from  being  expended  in  moving  things  from  one  place 
to  another,  there  was  no  milk  nor  any  of  the  foods 
made  from  milk.  This  statement  perhaps  requires  a 
slight,  but  a  very  slight  qualification.  Bison,  or  buffaloes 
as  they  are  often  wrongly  called,  roamed  the  grasslands 
in  countless  herds,  and  there  does  not  seem  any  very  good 
reason  why  these  might  not  have  been  domesticated.  It 
is  sometimes  said  that  they  are  incapable  of  domestica- 
tion. Whether  this  is  so  or  not,  the  fact  remains  that 
they  never  were  domesticated,  and  that  these  animals 
alone  could  have  allowed  of  the  existence  of  any  hardy 
nomadic  pastoral  peoples  who,  while  moving  to  in- 
fluence inhabitants  of  widely  separated  areas  on  the 
borders  of  the  steppelands,  might  yet  have  the  staying 
power  that  comes  from  the  possession  of  saved  energy 
or  capital.  The  nomad  of  the  New  World  must  perforce 
travel  light ;  this  may  allow  of  speed  of  movement,  but 
gives  no  great  irresistible  power.  In  the  New  World 
we  need  not  expect  to  see  great  migrations  of  people 
sweeping  all  before  them,  like  those  we  have  already 
seen  in  the  Old.  Further,  even  the  negro  type  of  civiliza- 
tion, as  far  as  it  was  based  on  cattle,  was  quite  im- 
possible, for  the  bison  did  not  exist  in  South  America. 

There  is,  then,  an  absence  of  those  conditions  which 
just  allowed  of,  and  stimulated,  the  early  development 
of  civilizations  so  quickly  as  those  of  the  Old  World. 


288      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

In  North  America,  thai  land  which  is  driest  and  most 
nearly  desert  stretched  roughly  from  the  north-west  of 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  past  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Cali- 
fornia. Here  it  is  warm  at  all  seasons,  and  indeed  hot 
in  summer,  so  that  life  is  comparatively  easy  where  it 
is  possible  at  all.  Though  rivers  as  a  rule  flow  far 
below  the  general  level  of  the  land,  yet  here  and  there 
they  may  be  used  for  irrigation  by  small  communities. 
Farther  south  the  plateau  of  Mexico  is  high,  compara- 


MEXICO  :     RELIEF. 


MEXICO  :     VEGETATION. 


Mexico  stands  high :   there  is  a  dry  land  to  the  north  and  a  dense 
forest  to  south  and  south-east. 


tively  dry,  difficult  of  approach  across  the  dry  land  from 
the  north,  and  difficult  of  approach  through  the  dense 
forest  that  clothes  the  lower  slopes  to  the  east  and 
south.  Here  is  a  warm  land  supplied  with  water  by 
streams  from  the  highlands  to  supplement  a  rainfall, 
fairly  abundant  in  summer  but  scanty  in  winter,  and 
possessing  a  measure  of  protection.  In  the  desert  area 
to  the  north  the  water  supply  could  support  only  a 
widely  scattered  population,  but  on  the  Mexican  plateau 
there  is  a  possibility  that  small  communities  might  here 


HISTORY  BEFORE  COLUMBUS  289 

and  there  come  into  contact  with  each  other.  There 
is  neither  the  same  measure  of  protection  nor  the  same 
basis  for  a  dense  population  as  in  Egypt,  but  at  any 
rate  it  is  the  region  most  like  Egypt  in  the  New  World 
north  of  the  equator. 

That  the  desert  and  the  forest  were  by  no  means 
effective  as  barriers  may  be  seen  from  what  we  know  of 
Mexican  history.  Little,  indeed,  is  known,  but  it  seems 
probable  that  there  has  been  a  succession  of  waves 
of  warlike  peoples  from  this  drier  north,  each  of  which 
first  partly  destroyed  the  more  advanced  form  of  civiliza- 
tion which  they  found,  and  then  made  themselves  the 
heirs  of  that  civilization.  Some  may  have  come  merely 
as  nomadic  hunters  from  the  dry  plains  eastward  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains ;  others  may  have  brought  some 
knowledge  of  arts  of  saving  energy  learned  in  the  small 
isolated  communities  of  the  arid  lands — of  house-building 
with  dried  mud,  "  adobe,"  or  of  cultivation  of  maize 
for  food  and  cotton  for  clothing.  In  any  case,  what 
we  find  in  Mexico  are  small  tribal  communities  living 
in  permanent  pueblos,  or  communal  village  houses  of 
stone,  clothed  with  cotton,  and  depending  for  food 
on  grain  stored  in  special  granaries  in  these  pueblos. 
Alliances  of  two  or  three  pueblos  for  a  time  dominate 
those  within  a  short  distance,  levy  tribute  of  grain  and 
cotton,  and  in  turn  are  compelled  to  acknowledge  the 
sway  of  other  federations. 

Here,  on  the  one  hand,  there  is  considerable  advance. 
Only  by  a  settled  life  can  great  stores  of  energy  be 
accumulated  in  a  form  other  than  that  of  flocks.  These 
people  had  settled  to  accumulate  food  energy  of  a  kind 
which  even  now  can  be  kept  longer  than  any  other, 
though  it  entails  most  trouble  in  preparation.  The 
u 


290      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

fruits  eaten  by  the  savage  can  be  pulled  and  consumed 
at  once ;  an  advance  has  been  made  when  he  grubs  up 
roots,  for  most  of  these  require  some  treatment  before 
they  are  eaten;  but  seeds  of  cereal  grains,  selected  and 
improved  by  generations  of  farmers  so  that  they  become 
larger  and  larger,  not  only  require  care  and  attention 
when  growing  in  order  that  the  most  may  be  made  of 
them,  but  require  much  to  be  done  to  them  after  they  are 
ripe  before  they  are  in  the  best  form  for  food ;  think  of  the 
number  of  processes  which  wheat  has  to  pass  through 
before  it  is  eaten,  and  compare  them  with  those  necessary 
to  make  apples  and  bananas  or  turnips  and  potatoes 
edible.  Wheat  the  inhabitants  of  the  New  World  did 
not  know,  but  maize,  the  corn  of  the  Indians,  the  cereal 
of  the  New  World,  was  known.  Requiring  less  attention 
than  wheat  when  growing,  and  less  need  for  preparation, 
it  was  in  one  form  or  another  known  all  over  the  conti- 
nent. It  may  be  grown  by  a  tribe  who  stay  long  enough 
in  one  place  only  to  clear  the  ground  of  forest  and 
plant  the  seeds,  and  who  return  when  the  crop  is  ripe 
to  consume  what  has  grown.  In  this  case  there  is  little 
saving.  It  may,  however,  be  grown  on  the  drier  lands 
by  irrigation,  and  part  of  the  crop  saved ;  this  the  early 
inhabitants  of  Mexico  did.  And  not  only  had  they 
enough  stored  energy  from  times  of  plenty  to  provide 
for  scarcity,  they  were  by  this  very  accumulation  of 
energy  able  to  protect  themselves ;  the  pueblos  were 
practically  fortresses  within  which  the  whole  popula- 
tion might  withdraw,  and  living  on  their  accumulated 
stores  might  be  in  a  favourable  position  to  withstand 
attack  for  a  time.  Further,  their  whole  time  was  not 
taken  up  with  an  attempt  to  preserve  life;  they  had 
sufficient  energy  to  provide  some  of  the  ornaments  of 


SPANISH  AMERICA  291 

life,  for  simple  sculpture,  for  the  accumulation  of  pretty 
things  of  gold  and  silver  which  they  had  made. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  this  advance  in  the  control  of 
energy  was  not  of  a  very  high  order.  The  geographical 
conditions  and  the  history  of  these  people,  such  as  it 
was,  placed  the  emphasis  on  the  small  unit.  There  was 
nothing  to  suggest  union.  The  lordship  which  one 
group  of  pueblos  exercised  over  the  others  was  in  no 
sense  a  kingdom  or  a  government;  there  was  no  terri- 
torial extension.  There  was  merely  an  extortion  of 
tribute  with  threats — blackmail.  There  was  no  corre- 
sponding defence  of  the  area  from  which  tribute  was 
exacted,  so  that  further  energy  might  be  saved;  there 
was  no  idea  of  nationality ;  it  was  not  even  a  military 
despotism  like  that  of  Assyria;  the  pueblos  dominant 
for  a  time  held  their  power  merely  because  the  other, 
weaker  pueblos  were  also  disunited;  tribute  was  ex- 
torted only  because  of  the  fear  of  utter  extinction  if  it 
was  withheld.  The  importance  of  Mexico  lay  in  the 
fact  that  here  was  a  more  efficient  method  of  saving 
energy  in  small  communities  than  elsewhere,  for  no 
social  or  governmental  organization  of  more  than  an 
elementary  type  had  been  evolved.  Not  only  do  we  see 
a  continual  change  in  dominant  pueblos — the  Aztecs 
being  only  those  whom  the  Spaniards  found  dominant, 
and  they  had  been  dominant  only  for  a  few  generations 
— but  when  any  outside  attack  was  made  there  was  little 
or  no  attempt  at  union  in  the  face  of  an  enemy,  rather 
was  there  the  reverse.  This  explains  the  ease  with 
which  the  Spaniards  were  able,  with  few  men,  to  place 
themselves  in  authority  so  quickly  over  the  whole  land. 

There  was  one  other  area  in  which  the  Mexican  type 
of  civilization  was  also  developed;    possibly,  indeed, 


292      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

bhere  is  some  collection  between  the  two,  but  at  present 
we  know  little  more  than  thai  in  the  low  peninsula  of 
Yucatan  to  the  eastward  of  Mexico,  and  separated  from 
it  by  forest,  a  people  lived  who  had  advanced  as  far 
as  or  farther  than  any  other  on  the  continent.  The 
climate  of  Yucatan  is  exceptional  on  the  Gulf  coasts, 
in  that  it  is  only  for  a  few  months  in  summer  that  it 
receives  much  rain,  while  the  remaining  areas  have 
abundance  of  rain  at  all  seasons ;  these  are  forest- 
covered,  while  Yucatan  is  a  grassland,  and  water  is 
valuable. 

In  Mexico  and  Yucatan  the  conditions  are  not  alto- 
gether unlike  those  where  early  advance  was  made  in 
the  Old  World.  In  the  other  region  which  we  must 
notice,  though  there  is  still  a  curious  fundamental 
similarity,  the  more  obvious  conditions  are  greatly 
different.  In  North  America  the  grasslands  are  small 
compared  with  those  of  Euro- Asia,  and  the  only  animal 
that  might  have  been,  though  it  was  not,  domesticated 
was  the  bison,  so  that  there  were  no  folk  who  are  com- 
parable to  the  nomad  pastoral  tribes  of  the  Old  World. 
In  South  America  even  a  smaller  area  is  a  cool  grass- 
land, and,  though  the  tropical  grassland  is  of  greater 
extent,  we  have  seen  that  not  even  the  bison  is 
indigenous ;  the  desert  is  of  small  extent,  and  the  great 
equatorial  forest  covers  almost  all  the  rest.  Thus  there 
does  not  appear  any  good  reason  why  a  great  advance 
might  be  expected  along  the  lines  followed  in  the  Old 
World. 

But  in  South  America  a  condition  of  things  exists 
which  is  found  nowhere  else  on  the  globe.  Rising 
abruptly  on  the  west  of  the  great  forested  plain  of  the 
Amazon  is  the  Andean  plateau,  two  or  three  hundred 


SPANISH  AMERICA 


293 


miles  across,  and  two  miles  high,  its  mountain  edges 
rising  a  mile  higher  still — that  on  the  east  being  forest- 
covered,  that  on  the  west  overlooking  a  dry  and  dusty 
plain.  The  lower  parts  of  the  central  plateau  are  com- 
paratively dry  and  warm,  the  nights  being  cool.  This 
climate  naturally  results  from  the  height  so  near  the 
equator;  farther  from  the  equator,  land  at  this  height 
is  too  cold,  even  in  this  latitude  higher  lands  such  as 


Edge  of  Forest 

mover  1200 ft 
..12000. .„ 


THE   BROAD   HIGHLAND   ON   THE   WEST   OF   SOUTH   AMERICA. 

Cuzco,  at  a  height  of  just  over  11,000  feet,  is  not  so  hot  as  the  lowland 
on  either  side. 


the  mountain  edges  are  too  cold  for  primitive  people. 
Nor  is  the  central  plateau  continuous.  The  bordering 
mountains  run  together  and  divide  the  habitable  land 
into  basins,  which  are  accessible  to  one  another,  but 
only  with  difficulty;  while  even  within  each  basin  the 
land  is  by  no  means  flat,  but  mountain  and  valley 
alternate. 

Here,  then,  is  another  area  where,  if  anywhere  in  South 


294      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

America,  there  is  the  possibility  that  a  higher  type  of 
civilization  might  be  evolved,  and  here  the  Spaniards 
found  the  Incas,  as  they  found  the  Aztecs  in  Mexico,  a 
people  who  had  but  recently  dominated  the  whole  land, 
and  had  merely  succeeded  to  a  heritage  which,  no  doubt 
with  some  setbacks,  had  been  developed  under  different 
hands  for  many  centuries.  But  they  had  really  organized 
their  whole  dominion,  as  the  Aztecs  had  not  done,  and 
the  organization  of  their  own  homeland  round  Cuzco 
was  probably  of  a  much  more  ancient  date  than  was  the 
building  of  the  Aztec  pueblos.  Perhaps,  indeed,  the 
development  had  been  proceeding  in  some  form  or 
another  for  so  long  a  time  that  in  the  earlier  stages 
the  whole  area,  which  is  one  known  to  be  liable  to 
unusually  rapid  changes  of  level,  may  have  been  thou- 
sands of  feet  lower  than  it  is  now,  and  life  made  easily 
possible  in  spots  where,  for  example,  it  is  now  too  cold 
for  grain  to  ripen. 

In  the  various  basins  of  the  plateau,  then,  protected 
to  some  extent  by  the  vacant  spaces  of  high  and  cold 
mountain  border  and  other  intervening  heights,  com- 
munities discovered  and  improved  methods  of  saving 
energy.  With  water  from  the  colder  mountains  they 
watered  fertile  lands,  and  grew  and  garnered  potatoes 
and  maize,  the  former  indigenous,  the  latter  introduced 
no  doubt  by  invaders  from  the  east,  who  invigorated, 
if  they  first  tended  to  destroy,  those  they  found.  But 
by  the  employment  of  the  only  animal  in  the  New  World 
which  was  domesticated  by  non-hunting  peoples,  they 
were  enabled  to  use  and  save  energy  in  many  ways 
possible  to  no  others.  The  llama,  an  animal  of  the  camel 
kind,  like  its  larger  relative  is  a  native  of  dry  lands,  but 
unlike  the  camel  its  home  is  on  the  high  plateaus.     To 


SPANISH  AMERICA  295 

the  llama,  as  a  beast  of  burden  though  not  of  draught, 
as  a  source  of  food  though  not  of  milk,  and  as  a  supplier 
of  the  raw  material  of  clothing,  was  in  no  small  degree 
due  the  possibility  of  the  growth  of  Andean  power. 
Having  organized  the  natural  area  of  which  Cuzco  is 
the  centre,  the  Incas  dominated,  and  then,  not  being 
merely  blackmailers  like  the  Aztecs,  systematized  in  a 
larger  whole,  the  various  social  organizations  which  had 
been  evolved  in  similar  basins  to  north  and  south. 
They  did  more;  they  descended  on  to  the  western 
coastal  desert,  and  there  also  dominated  and  organized, 
to  form  one  state,  a  considerable  number  of  small 
isolated  communities  which,  each  using  the  waters  of 
a  separate  river  flowing  from  the  heights  across  the 
plain,  cultivated  the  irrigated  lands  around  it,  and  gained 
control  of  energy  in  Egyptian  fashion.  Even  so  these 
communities  were  far  more  open  to  external  domination 
than  those  in  Egypt,  and  were  yet  too  isolated  to 
make  a  united  defence  against  men  who  came  with 
an  organized  force. 

It  may  seem  strange  that  in  the  chains  of  islands 
which  make  up  the  West  Indies  there  should  be  no 
people  who  developed  a  civilization  like  that  of  the 
Greeks.  As  we  might  expect,  maritime  conditions  were 
not  wholly  without  effect,  for  the  islands  were  occupied 
by  at  least  two  races,  who  passed  easily  from  one  island  to 
another ;  the  incursions  of  the  later  of  these,  the  Caribs, 
who  gave  their  name  to  the  sea  in  which  the  islands  are 
set,  were  interrupted  by  the  arrival  of  the  Spaniards. 
But  two  conditions  were  lacking  which  helped  to 
develop  Greek  civilization.  On  the  one  hand,  the 
inhabitants  came  from  a  region  where  civilization  was 
of  a  low  type ;   they  had  originally  occupied  the  forest- 


296      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

covered  lands  between  the  Orinoco  and  the  Amazon, 
or  even  those  farther  south,  and  had  only  been  tempted 
step  by  step  to  occupy  the  islands,  because  the  first, 
Trinidad,  lies  within  sight  of  the  Orinoco  mouth,  and 
some  familiarity  with  navigation  had  been  obtained 
on  that  river.  On  the  other  hand,  the  continental 
shores  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  the  islands  set  within 
it  are  rainy,  and  for  the  most  part  forest-covered,  with 
just  those  conditions  which  lead  to  little  development. 
The  case  of  the  Greeks  was  very  different;  the  lands 
round  the  end  of  the  Mediterranean  were  the  homes  of 
those  who  had  learned  how  to  live  well,  and,  whatever 
the  origin  of  the  Greeks,  they  sprang  from  stocks  by 
which  some  advance  had  been  made.  We  have,  perhaps, 
spoken  as  if  the  civilization  of  Egypt  developed  entirely 
on  the  spot,  but  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  behind 
the  Egyptians  lay  long  ages  of  development.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  West  Indies  came  from  lands  where 
early  development  is  least  to  be  expected,  and  even 
when  tempted  to  cross  the  sea  they  had  developed  little. 
Further,  the  islands  of  the  Greeks  were  not  only  dry 
and  sunny,  with  conditions  which  stimulated  develop- 
ment, but  the  shores  of  the  Eastern  Mediterranean  were 
the  homes  of  men  who  were  living  well  under  many 
different  conditions,  and  to  whatever  lands  they  sailed, 
the  Greeks  saw  men  doing  things  in  a  different  manner 
from  their  own;  whilst  the  Caribs  and  their  prede- 
cessors, except  for  their  sea  environment,  which  did  have 
an  effect,  were  exposed  to  conditions  little  different 
from  those  on  the  continent  from  which  they  sprang, 
and  on  their  voyages,  such  as  they  were,  saw  little  that 
was  new.  Thus  in  the  West  Indian  i-slands  there  was 
no  advance  worth  considering. 


SPANISH  AMERICA  297 

There  were,  then,  two  areas  and  two  only  in  the  New 
World  like  those  of  the  Old,  where  men  became  some- 
thing more  than  savages,  in  respect  of  the  facts  that  life 
was  there  comparatively  easy,  that  small  communities 
were  protected  from  savage  attack,  and  yet  that  there 
was  a  stimulus  to  save  energy.  That  is  to  say,  the  lands 
where  advance  was  made  in  the  New  World  were  like 
those  of  the  Old  in  being  warm  and  comparatively  dry ; 
yet,  because  the  conditions  were  not  quite  so  favourable, 
the  advance  was  not  so  rapid.  It  was  natural  that  the 
peoples  of  the  Old  World  should  discover  those  of  the 
New  rather  than  the  reverse,  for  the  races  on  the  high 
plateau  were  the  only  folk  who  had  advanced  much 
beyond  the  stage  of  savagery,  and  they  were  out  of 
touch  with  the  ocean.  They  lived  in  an  environment 
which  was  less  favourable  to  early  development  than 
was  found  in  Egypt,  while  it  seems  to  be  less  favour- 
able still  for  further  expansion.  High  up  on  the  An- 
dean and  Mexican  plateaus  communication  is  difficult 
between  several  adjacent  highland  regions,  and  doubly 
difficult  with  the  lowlands  on  either  hand  and  the  sea 
beyond.  Of  trade  there  was  very  little,  if  any;  there 
was  no  speculation  as  to  the  shape  of  the  earth,  much 
less  was  there  any  suggestion  that  the  question  had 
a  practical  bearing,  or  that  there  were  other  lands 
possessing  riches  which  might  be  reached  across  the 
ocean  by  any  way. 

The  ocean  had  hardly  reached  the  stage  of  being 
feared,  for  it  was  scarcely  known ;  these  heights,  isolated 
and  difficult  of  approach  even  under  modern  conditions, 
were  the  homes  of  men  who  had  no  stimulus  to  seek 
ways  to  other  lands,  of  whose  existence  they  were 
absolutely  ignorant.     Though  conditions  in  other  parts 


298      GEOGRAPHY    AND    WOULD   POWER 

of  the  continent  were  such  that  they  might  have 
become  seats  of  more  advanced  civilization,  yet  the 
original  stimuli  which  caused  the  advance  in  Europe 
were  wanting.  Considering  the  long  periods  through 
which  human  advance  has  been  taking  place,  and  the 
disadvantages  of  the  New  World  as  compared  with  the 
Old,  the  extraordinary  thing  is,  not  that  the  civilization 
of  the  former  was  behind  that  of  the  latter,  but  that  it 
was  so  little  behind. 

The  conditions  which  existed  in  the  New  World 
did  not  allow  of  the  development  of  any  advanced 
civilization,  yet  they  were  of  importance  in  determining 
directly  and  indirectly  how  the  various  forms  of  civiliza- 
tion which  had  their  birth  in  Europe  might  develop 
when  transplanted  to  a  new  soil ;  directly,  because  con- 
ditions of  relief  and  climate  determined  where  men  who 
had  learned  to  control  energy  might  settle  to  control  more 
energy,  and  how  they  might  move  with  least  expenditure 
of  energy,  and  also  indirectly,  for  it  was  easier  to  act 
in  some  ways  rather  than  others  because  of  the  past 
history.  We  have  already  noted  how  the  discovery  of 
the  New  World  was  made  under  Spanish  auspices,  and 
how  it  was  the  West  Indies,  in  the  latitude  of  regions 
from  which  spices  were  known  to  come  and  to  which 
the  trade  winds  blew  from  North  Africa,  that  were 
discovered  rather  than  the  lands  to  the  north.  Now 
there  is  a  difference  between  the  West  Indies  to  which 
the  Spaniards  came  and  the  East  Indies  to  which  they 
thought  they  had  come,  and  to  which  the  Portuguese 
actually  did  come.  The  East  Indies,  because  they  were 
inhabited  by  men  in  organized  communities,  though 
less  advanced  than  those  of  Europe,  were  the  source  of 
articles  of  commerce,  of  things  valuable  in  themselves 


SPANISH  AMERICA  299 

or  thought  to  be  valuable,  and  the  Portuguese  at  once 
obtained  what  they  sought,  and  brought  these  back 
in  their  vessels.  The  West  Indies,  inhabited  by  men 
on  a  far  lower  plane  of  civilization,  had  little  to  supply, 
and  Spanish  attempts  at  colonization  made  slow  progress 
at  first.  They  probably  would  have  continued  to  make 
slow  progress,  if  they  did  not  become  a  total  failure, 
had  it  not  been  for  the  existence  of  those  communities, 
somewhat  more  advanced  than  the  rest,  of  which  we 
have  spoken — on  the  Mexican  highland  and  the  low- 
land of  Yucatan,  on  the  Andean  plateau  and  the  desert 
lowland  to  the  west.  In  each  case,  discovery  of  the 
lowland  civilization  led  to  knowledge  of  that  on  the 
plateau,  and  the  Spaniards  were  able  quickly  to  dominate 
areas  which,  if  they  had  been  inhabited  by  savage 
tribes,  would  have  taken  years  if  not  centuries  to 
organize.  The  essential  parts  of  Spanish  dominion  in 
the  New  World  were  those  lands  where  civilization  had 
made  some  progress,  and  where,  though  there  were  no 
spices,  stored  gold  and  silver,  the  trappings  of  that 
civilization,  mistakenly  by  the  Spaniards  supposed  to 
be  wealth,  could  be  obtained.  The  remaining  lands 
under  Spanish  dominion  in  Central  America,  the  North 
of  South  America  and  the  West  Indies,  were  just  so 
much  as  naturally  went  with  the  essential  parts,  but 
after  a  hurried  search  for  gold  these  connecting  regions 
were  occupied  in  a  military  sense  only,  and  for  the  most 
part  left  for  long  in  their  original  condition. 

With  the  collapse  of  the  Spanish  power  these  lands 
slipped  from  the  control  of  Spain,  and  broke  up  into 
states  which  still  retain  a  Spanish  impress.  In  the 
West  Indies,  devoid  of  gold  and  unessential  to  the  con- 
trol of  lands  where  gold  had  been  stored,  the  Spaniards 


300      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

made  no  attempt  to  hold  more  1  ban  a  few  islands,  allow- 
ing other  sea-powers  to  claim,  colonize  and  organize  the 
rest.     The  plateaus,  peopled  still  by  the  descendants  of 


MEXICO   AND    PERU. 

Mexico  and  Peru  were  the  important  conquests  of  Spain  :  the  rest 
of  the  land  was  held,  but  it  brought  little  return. 

those  whom  the  Spanish  found  there,  and  still  difficult 
of  access,  still  tend  to  remain  in  units  curiously  corre- 
sponding to  the  conditions  before  the  Spaniards  came. 


SPANISH  AMERICA  301 

Out  of  touch  with  modern  conditions,  with  small  popula- 
tions even  if  the}'  have  large  areas,  there  are  revolutions 
which  reflect  the  tendency  to  break  up  into  smaller 
units  still.  Mexico,  the  plateau  between  the  desert  on 
the  north  and  the  forest  on  the  south,  together  with 
the  dry  lowland  of  Yucatan,  is  open  to  the  sea  on  two 
sides,  and  is  the  most  Spanish  of  the  Spanish  colonies. 
In  Peru,  which  comprises  both  the  highland  round  the 
original  Inca  seat  of  power,  and  the  irrigated  desert  to 
the  west,  half  the  population  are  still  Inca  Indians.  In 
Bolivia,  brought  under  the  rule  of  the  Incas  on  their 
southward  advance,  and  possessing  no  coast  plain,  three- 
quarters  of  the  population  are  of  pure  Indian  blood. 
Ecuador,  brought  under  the  sway  of  the  Incas  on  their 
northern  advance,  only  within  half  a  century  of  the 
Discovery,  has  a  majority  of  its  inhabitants  still  Indian. 
Colombia,  never  under  Inca  rule,  but  having  a  civilization 
of  the  same  type,  and  more  open  to  the  Spanish  sea-power 
in  the  Caribbean  by  the  Ma_,Jalena  and  Cauca  valleys, 
is  more  Spanish  than  the  other  South  American  states. 
Mexico,  the  town  on  the  lake,  strong  as  a  defence  foi 
Aztec  pueblos,  and  Cuzco,  a  strategic  centre  for  Inca 
conquest,  still  remain  centres  of  modern  states ;  though 
Lima,  set  by  the  Spanish  conqueror  in  the  dry  western 
desert  once  dominated  by  Peru,  is  now  by  a  curious 
but  quite  natural  reversal  the  centre  from  which  Peru 
is  governed.  Vera  Cruz  and  Callao,  ports  for  lands 
across  the  ocean  of  which  the  ancient  inhabitants 
never  dreamed,  owe  their  position  to  the  needs  of  the 
conquering  Spaniards. 

The  small  forested  states  of  Central  America,  really 
uncolonized,  barely  organized,  and  with  little  real  unity, 
would  be  of  less  account  than  the  states  on  the  plateau, 


302      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  they  are  more  in  touch  with 
the  waters  of  two  oceans,  and  that  across  them  must 
pass  men  more  able  than  natives  or  half-castes  to  control 
energy  by  the  most  economic  modern  methods. 

But  in  the  far  south,  where  originally  Spani.sh  attempts 
at  control  were  as  half-hearted  as  in  Central  America, 
are  growing  the  most  important  states  which  owe  their 
existence  to  Spanish  initiative.  Chile  and  Argentina, 
essentially  the  lowlands  on  either  side  of  the  lofty,  cold 
and  uninhabited  barrier,  have  areas  not  unlike  those  to 
be  found  in  Western  Europe.  Here,  in  regions  having 
a  climate  to  which  they  are  accustomed,  men  of  European 
stocks,  with  all  the  historical  advantages  which  that 
implies,  are  colonizing  lands  where  no  great  advance 
was  possible  under  primitive  conditions.  Organized 
from  Buenos  Ayres  and  Santiago,  under  a  rule  which 
retains  more  than  a  suggestion  of  its  Spanish  origin, 
lands  to  north  and  south  are  gradually  being  occupied 
and  utilized  for  the  supply  of  more  energy  to  the  modern 
world.  More  easy  of  access,  occupied  by  men  capable 
of  controlling  energy  more  economically,  supplying  more 
energy  in  usable  forms,  Chile  and  Argentina,  to  which 
may  be  added  Uruguay,  should  have  more  importance 
now  than  have  the  Andean  states  to  the  north. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  the  Portuguese  on  their 
way  to  the  Indies  discovered  a  portion  of  South  America 
and  by  the  Pope's  decree  shared  with  the  Spaniards 
such  rights  as  the  Pope  could  give.  They  placed  here 
and  there  on  the  coastlands  of  Brazil  and  on  the  shores 
of  the  great  Amazon  a  few  stations,  and  staked  out 
claims  to  a  large  area  long  thought  to  be  of  so  little 
value  that  their  claims  were  not  disputed.  Thus  the 
foundations   were   laid   of   a   modern  state,   in   which, 


'^w 


s> 


I  Area,  where  average 
monthly  temperature 
does  not  fall  below  53° 


S.    AMERICA  !     TEMPERATURE. 

Chile  and  the  Argentina  have  a  much  cooler  climate  than  the 
remainder  of  South  America. 


303 


304      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

indeed,  there  are  vast  possibilities,  though  its  im- 
portant part  is  still  the  steep  south-eastern  coastlands 
open  to  the  sea  and  comparatively  cool. 

Again  we  see  how  the  course  of  history  and  the 
production  of  the  modern  conditions,  the  basis  for  future 
history,  have  been  controlled  by  the  geography  which, 
on  the  one  hand  has  stimulated  action,  and  on  the 
other  has  determined  how  and  where  the  most  effective 
action  shall  take  place. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

coal:  the  greater  land  distributions: 
the  united  states 

The  New  World  was  not  so  favourably  situated  as 
the  Old  for  the  development  on  the  spot  of  an  early 
civilization,  and  so  there  is  no  land  like  Egypt.  But 
though  the  geographical  conditions  remain  unchanged, 
they  may  control  the  course  of  history  differently 
according  as  men  are  able  or  are  not  able  to  use  energy 
in  certain  ways.  The  ocean  was  for  long  a  barrier,  now 
it  is  an  open  highway.  So  on  the  American  lands 
unsuited  for  early  development  we  see  a  growth  of  one 
of  the  great  Powers,  because  here  energy  could  be  con- 
trolled and  saved  more  economically  when  men  once 
knew  how.  The  first  stages  in  the  history  gave  little 
promise  of  future  importance.  Not  alone  did  the 
Spaniards  cross  the  ocean.  For  reasons  depending  on 
the  geography  of  the  Old  World  rather  than  that  of  the 
New,  French,  Dutch,  and  English  followed  closely,  but 
kept  in  the  main  to  the  north,  at  first  still  searching 
for  the  sea  way  to  the  Indies.  The  French,  following 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  Mississippi,  penetrated  far  inland 
and  claimed  vast  territories  in  the  great  lowland  reached 
by  these  rivers.  The  English  settled  on  the  eastern 
coastlands  both  before  and  after  the  Dutch  were 
dispossessed,  cut  from  their  base  by  happenings  in 
X  305 


306 


COAL 


307 


Europe.  The  forested  highlands  of  the  Appalachians 
and  New  England,  and  the  plains  beyond  claimed  by 
the  French,  formed  a  double  barrier,  physical  and 
political,  which  hemmed  in  these  settlements,  and  no 
one    would    have    supposed    that    they    marked    the 


EASTERN    N.    AMERICA  :     SUMMER   HEAT. 

beginning  of  what  would  become,  within  a  century  or 
two,  one  of  the  greatest  Powers  of  the  world.  This 
growth  was  due  to  the  geographical  conditions,  to  the 
geographical  factors  controlling  European  history,  and 
to  a  further  discovery  of  how  to  use  energy  to  greater 
advantage. 


308      GEOGRAPHY   AND  WORLD   POWBB 

The  settlements  were  outside  the  limits  of  extreme 
winter  cold  and  of  extreme  summer  heat.     There  is, 


THE   HUDSON-MOHAWK   GAP. 

New  York  is  at  the  entrance  to  this  gap,  the  only  easy  way 
to  the  interior. 


indeed,  no  part  of  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America 
which  has  a  climate  at  all  comparable  w?ith  that  of 
Britain,  but  the  lands  actually  settled  were  more  like 


COAL  309 

those  of  the  old  country  than  any  to  north  or  south. 
The  climatic  conditions  go  far' to  explain  the  situation 
of  the  greatest  of  the  American  cities  and  especially 
that  of  New  York. 

The  forested  highlands  formed  a  barrier,  arid  well  it  was 
so ;  the  small  communities  in  New  England  and  Virginia 
were  kept  together;  the  land  they  claimed  was  really 
occupied,  and  was  not  like  the  great  stretch  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence, 
a  vast  expanse  with  a  wandering  Frenchman,  hunter  or 
missionary,  here  and  there.  And  yet  through  this  barrier 
is  an  easy  way  open  to  the  ocean  tide  for  the  first  150 
miles  from  the  sea.  On  these  sheltered  waters  first 
sailed  Henry  Hudson  and  his  Dutchmen  seeking  the 
way  to  the  Indies,  and  by  the  valley  called  after  its 
first  explorer  and  by  the  valley  of  the  tributary  Mohawk 
men  might  reach  the  lowlands  on  the  west.  When 
the  time  came,  the  English  settlers  were  able  to  strike 
through,  break  the  French  line  from  the  interior  position, 
and  occupy  the  central  lowland  effectively. 

The  defeat  of  the  French  was  not  due  only  to  those 
facts.  Had  the  Frenchmen  on  the  St.  Lawrence  been 
strongly  supported  by  France,  there  might  have  been 
a  different  result ;  but,  as  we  have  seen,  French  coloniz- 
ing policy,  influenced  by  the  geographical  conditions, 
was  not  continuous ;  these  settlers  were  not  energetically 
supported  from  France.  The  stronger  strategic  position 
of  the  British  was  used  effectively  and  the  land  became 
British,  though  there  remains  on  the  northern  shores 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  a  community  where  the  French 
language  is  spoken,  where  customs  and  manners  betray 
a  French  origin,  and  yet  where  it  is  felt  that  no  allegiance 
is  due  to  France. 


310      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD  POWER 

On  the  eastern  seaboard  of  North  America,  then,  just 
because  the  land  is  different,  the  political  units  are  more 
stable  than  are  those  conquered  by  Spain.  The  land 
was  really  colonized;  men  and  women,  having  greal 
powers  of  initiative,  settled  and  saved  energy,  which 
they  won  from  the  soil  by  their  own  efforts.  The 
stock  was  pure,  there  were  no  half-breeds ;  those  who 
fixed  the  type  of  government  and  social  custom  were  no 
soldiers  and  celibate  priests  whose  watchwords  were 
glory,  gold  and  gospel;  they  were  picked  by  their 
very  originality.  Colonization  takes  longer  than  con- 
quest, but  it  is  more  effective.  Those  who  came  later 
of  different  stocks,  speaking  different  languages,  were 
one  by  one  absorbed,  and  added  strength  to  the  whole. 

But  even  those  advantages  would  have  had  little  effect, 
at  any  rate  quickly,  had  it  not  been  for  a  great  discovery, 
one  of  the  great  discoveries  of  the  world,  one  to  be 
reckoned  with  the  discovery  of  the  ocean,  of  iron  or  of 
lire,  a  discovery  which  has  caused  one  of  the  great 
revolutions,  because  it  was  a  discovery  of  a  new  way  of 
controlling  energy. 

We  have  assumed  that  the  fundamental  necessities 
of  human  life  are  food  and  clothing.  The  energy  which 
gives  the  ability  to  do  work,  possessed  by  every  human 
being,  has  been  assimilated  by  means  of  food.  The 
energy  of  the  individual  has  been  to  a  large  extent 
saved  in  these  regions  by  means  of  clothing.  In  very 
early  times,  or  among  savage  races,  food  and  clothing 
may  have  been  obtained  in  other  ways,  but  during  all 
historic  times,  among  all  peoples  that  have  ever  count  til. 
food  and  clothing  have  been  obtained  under  two  sets  of 
social  conditions  :  they  have  been  obtained  from  more  or 
less  domesticated  animals,  or  by  cultivating  the  ground. 


COAL  311 

All  the  food  and  all  the  clothing  required  was  raised 
by  each  individual  or  family,  or  at  most  a  very  small 
association  of  people.  Each  of  these  communities  was 
practically  independent  of  the  rest  of  the  world,  except 
in  so  far  as  it  was  open  to  interference  from  outside  by 
others  who  wished  forcibly  to  seize  the  stores  of  food 
energy  or  of  clothing  protection. 

In  other  words,  energy  was  largely  saved  by  indi- 
viduals; practically  all  mechanical  work  was  done  by 
individuals  or  animals,  and  the  limit  of  the  amount  of 
work  that  could  be  done  was  the  amount  that  a 
few  men  or  a  few  animals  could  do.  There  were 
one  or  two  exceptions  to  this  almost  general  rule,  but 
they  only  emphasize  how  very  general  the  rule  was  that 
agriculture  and  pastoral  pursuits  were  supreme,  and 
that  the  individual  man's  work  was  the  maximum  that 
could  be  attempted. 

Mills  for  grinding  corn  for  food  were  in  later  times 
either  wind  or  water  driven.  We  see  now  in  country 
places  a  mill  here  and  a  mill  there.  We  think  of  them 
rather  as  picturesque  objects  than  as  instruments  of 
extraordinary  value.  If  we  see  them  turn  laboriously, 
almost  the  last  idea  that  the  rumbling  old  things  suggest 
is  that,  just  as  they  stand,  they  were  for  many  hundreds 
of  years  the  greatest  machines,  the  machines  giving  out 
most  energy,  known  to  man.  Small  as  it  was,  the  mill 
was  almost  the  only  instrument  "where  energy  of  a 
krger  amount  than  that  supplied  by  one  man's  body 
was  used.  It  was  the  only  instrument  whereby  energy 
other  than  food  energy  could  be  used  for  the  service  of 
man.  There  had  been  a  great  revolution  when  the  daily 
domestic  labour  of  grinding  at  the  mill  was  given  up, 
and  the  supply  ground  once  for  all  at  the  common  mill 


312      GEOGRAPHY   AND  WORLD  POWER 

by  power,  however  feeble,  according  to  our  ideas  of 

what  power  is.  The  miller  was  an  important  personage 
in  those  days ;  the  mill  was  an  important  centre.  Many 
are  the  towns  and  villages  that  owe  their  position  to  the 
existence  of  a  mill  beside  a  stream,  not  in  Britain  only, 
but  all  over  the  Old  World  and  those  parts  of  the  New 
which  have  been  settled  for  more  than  a  hundred  years. 
The  importance  of  this  very  feeble  way  of  utilizing  power 
brings  home  to  us  clearly  how  very  small  were  the 
greatest  power  schemes  that  could  be  attempted.  By 
the  mill  some  small  part  of  the  domestic  labour  necessary 
to  prepare  food  was  done  away  with,  but  all  clothing, 
every  stitch  of  it,  to  save  the  heat-energy  of  the  human 
body,  was  hand  made.  From  the  curing  of  the  skin, 
the  shearing  of  the  sheep,  and  the  planting  of  the  flax, 
to  the  making  of  the  actual  garment,  all  the  operations 
were  performed  by  individuals,  and  usually  by  the 
individual  who  was  going  to  wear  the  garment  or  by  a 
member  of  his  family.  A  great  advance  was  made  when 
the  trade  of  weaver  appeared  and  the  fabric  was  woven, 
still  by  single  man-power,  it  is  true,  but  by  the  aid  of  a 
loom.  Herein  lay  the  importance  of  the  weaving  guilds 
of  the  Middle  Ages  in  North  Italy,  and  the  importance 
of  Britain  because  she  could  breed  sheep. 

There  was  very  little  commerce.  Commerce  implies 
that  something  can  be  produced  more  cheaply,  i.  e. 
with  less  expenditure  of  energy,  in  one  place  than  an- 
other, and  can  be  carried  cheaply  from  the  place  of 
production  to  the  place  of  consumption.  Now  in  all 
the  Middle  Ages,  in  all  the  time  that  elapsed  up  to  a 
hundred  years  ago,  it  was  only  in  exceptional  circum- 
stances that  bulky  things  could  stand  carriage.  The 
cost,  i.  e.  the  expenditure  of  energy  necessary  to  convey 


COAL  313 

large  heavy  things  any  distance,  was  so  great  that, 
however  cheaply  they  might  be  produced  originally, 
the  amount  of  energy  expended  on  them  to  carry  them 
any  distance,  added  to  that  necessary  to  produce  them, 
was  too  great  to  save  anything  in  the  long  run.  Even 
after  the  Portuguese  discovered  the  sea  way  to  the 
Indies,  the  whole  amount  of  the  spices  brought  to 
Europe  in  a  year  would  go  into  the  fore-hold  of  a  modern 
coasting  tramp,  and  spices  were  almost  the  only  things 
which  it  paid  to  carry. 

Even  this  small  trade  was  done  only  because  of  the 
other  exception  to  the  general  rule  that  all  energy  used 
was  that  to  be  obtained  from  the  bodies  of  single  men 
or  animals.  Small,  clumsy  vessels  were  carried  over 
the  ocean  by  means  of  wind  pushing  their  sails.  Wind 
or  water  power  on  a  small  scale  on  land  for  grinding  corn, 
wind  power  on  a  small  scale  on  sea  for  propelling  vessels 
were  the  only  powers  that  man  could  control.  There 
were  no  roads,  as  we  understand  roads,  after  those  of 
the  Romans  fell  into  decay,  and  few  tracks.  Such  local 
traffic  as  did  exist  was  carried  on  for  the  most  part  on 
rivers,  since  it  is  easier  to  propel  a  boat  on  water  than 
to  drag  a  cart  on  land.  Such  towns  as  deserved  the 
name  had  to  do  with  government,  or  with  the  slight 
commerce  that  was  carried  on.  Normally  there  was  in 
any  given  political  area  one  city  and  one  city  only,  the 
capital,  the  seat  of  government,  where  the  organizations 
were  perfected  which  with  greater  or  less  success  pro- 
tected the  land,  and  allowed  agricultural  and  pastoral 
pursuits  and  occupations  to  be  carried  on  without 
interference.  A  few  ports  existed,  because  it  paid  to 
construct  some  kind  of  harbour  accommodation  where 
a  number  of  vessels  might  come,  but  for  the  rest  there 


314      GEOGRAPHY    AND   WORLD  POWER 

were  only  small  villages,  which  grew  neither  less  nor 
greater.  Liverpool  itself  remained  for  many  centuries 
with  a  population  not  varying  much  from  700  persons. 
and  this  is  an  index  of  the whole  set  of  conditions.  They 
remained  year  in  and  year  out,  century  in  and  century 
out,  with  very  little  change.  Through  all  the  centuries 
men  were  born  and  died  in  a  world  which  was  entirely 
depend' 'lit  on  agriculture  and  pastoral  pursuits,  a  world 
in  which  the  physically  strong  man  counted  for  a  great 
deal,  because  by  the  strength  of  his  muscles  he  could  do 
more  than  could  be  done  not  only  by  anyone  else  but 
by  any  other  means. 

Then  into  this  world  of  agriculture  and  pasture  and 
little  market  towns  with  a  few  ports  and  governmental 
cities  there  came,  a  little  more  than  a  century  ago,  the 
beginnings  of  the  Industrial  Revolution.  Coal,  which 
up  till  then  had  been  used  here  and  there  merely  for 
domestic  purposes,  came  to  be  used  to  drive  machines 
which  would  do  far  more  work  than  the  individual  man 
or  animal,  or  even  a  number  of  men  or  animals  could 
do.  Man  harnessed  energy  outside  himself  to  do  the 
things  which  before  then  he  had  to  do  himself  with  his 
own  hands.  Here  was  a  tremendous  new  store  of 
energy,  not  food  energy  at  all,  by  which  things  could  be 
done  which  could  not  be  done  before.  Man  has  been 
able  to  use  energy  on  a  far  vaster  scale.  The  materials 
for  his  food  and  clothing  are  brought  from  the  ends  of 
the  earth — not  the  luxuries  merely,  like  spices  and  tea — 
but  w^hat  forms  the  great  bulk  of  his  meals  and  dress. 
Only  one-fifth  of  the  wheat  we  use  is  grown  in  Britain. 
The  vegetables  a  man  eats  are  no  longer  grown  in  the 
field  near  his  home.  Fruits  our  grandfathers  never  heard 
of  come  from  other  lands.     The  materials  for  clothing 


COAL  315 

are  no  longer  produced  hard  by,  but  are  brought  in 
bulk  from  continents  overseas.  A  man's  clothing  is 
prepared  for  him  to  the  last  stitch,  so  that  there  is  very 
little  clothes-making  in  the  home.  His  food  is  to  a  very 
great  extent  made  ready  for  his  table,  with  the  result 
that  even  in  his  home  there  is  far  less  preparation  of 
it,  and  in  great  cities  food  preparation  on  a  large  scale 
is  such  an  industry  that  he  may  at  almost  any  hour  of 
the  day  or  night  obtain  such  a  meal  as  suits  his  pocket 
or  his  palate. 

These  entirely  new  conditions  of  production  and 
commerce  have  very  greatly  changed  the  whole  aspect 
of  social  and  political  life,  and  will  change  it  still  further. 

By  the  discovery  thus  made  Great  Britain  at  once 
profited.  It  was  natural  that  the  discovery  should  be 
made  in  Britain.  Newcastle  coal — sea  coal — had  long 
been  used  for  purely  domestic  purposes ;  there  is  evidence 
of  its  having  been  brought  to  London  as  early  as  the 
thirteenth  century.  Of  all  the  coalfields  in  the  world 
none  are  nearer  the  sea,  and  nowhere  else  could  coal  be 
shipped  in  small  vessels  at  so  little  expense.  It  came 
to  be  used  in  lime-burning,  in  smith's  forges,  in  smelting 
copper  and  lead,  in  making  pottery,  in  drying  malt,  but 
purely  for  its  direct  heating  effect.  The  first  apparently 
trivial  steps  by  which  the  discovery  was  made  were 
neither  so  likely  to  have  been  made  elsewhere  nor  so 
likely  to  have  led  to  great  results,  for  where  the  first 
discoveries  were  made,  there  it  was  more  probable  that 
men  should  make  also  the  later. 

By  the  employment  of  coal  to  generate  steam,  things 
were  moved  that  it  was  not  possible  to  move  before, 
and  things  were  moved  at  rates  never  before  dreamed 
of.     From  the  long  struggle  for  sea-power  which  ended 


310      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

with  the  defeat  of  Napoleon,  Britain  emerged  able 
and  willing  to  profit  by  the  enormously  increased  ability 
to  control  energy  thus  made  possible,  while  other 
European  states,  with  organizations  of  all  kinds  dis- 
turbed, were  not  yet  able  to  reap  the  advantages  of 
the  discovery.  The  importance  of  Britain,  as  the  land 
where  enormous  energy  was  controlled,  greatly  increased. 
London,  the  centre  to  which  all  roads  converged,  was 
the  place  to  which  all  railways  were  made  to  converge. 
As  a  result  partly  of  her  acknowledged  position,  a 
legacy  from  past  history,  partly  from  a  new  power  won 
by  the  control  of  vast  energy,  London,  the  commercial 
capital  of  Britain,  strengthened  her  position  still  further 
as  the  banking  centre  of  the  world.  An  advance  was 
made  whereby  the  organization  of  commerce  in  articles 
carried  easily  over  land  and  sea  by  the  new  methods 
was  made  far  more  easy,  and  energy  saved  by  every 
state  that  used  the  banking  facilities  in  London,  but 
by  Britain  most  of  all. 

It  has  been  calculated  that  the  coal  used  in  our 
factories  alone,  all  other  uses  whatsoever  being  excluded, 
gives  the  equivalent  of  the  energy  of  175,000,000  hard- 
working men,  and  in  such  a  useful  form  as  men  could 
never  supply.  The  power  of  Greece,  whereby  she 
achieved  such  great  things  in  all  directions  of  human 
progress,  was  largely  based  in  the  first  instance  on  the 
work  done  by  the  servile  class.  On  the  average  each 
Greek  freeman,  each  Greek  family,  had  five  helots  whom 
we  think  of  not  at  all  when  we  speak  of  the  Greeks,  and 
yet  these  were  the  men  who  supplied  a  great  part  of  the 
Greek  energy.  In  Britain,  we  may  say,  every  family 
has  more  than  twenty  helots  to  supply  energy,  requiring 
no  food  and  feeling  nothing  of  the  wear  and  tear  and 


COAL  317 

hopelessness  of  a  servile  life.  With  a  population  of 
45  million  men,  women  and  children,  Britain's  factories 
are  worked  by  175  million  man-power.  E[er  railways  and 
steamships  use  90  million  man-power  more.  In  com- 
parison with  the  energy  supplied  to  machines  in  which 
things  are  made  to  move  by  purely  mechanical  means, 
the  physical  energy  supplied  by  the  fewer  than  20  million 
men  and  women  scarcely  counts.  We  have  become  a 
nation  of  engineers,  pressing  buttons  and  pulling  levers, 
oiling  and  packing,  so  that  the  great  social  machine  will 
work  smoothly  and  as  easily  as  possible.  The  inanimate 
helots  grind  our  corn,  make  our  clothes,  fetch  our  food 
from  the  ends  of  the  earth,  carry  us  hither  and  thither 
to  work  and  play,  print  our  news  and  our  books  of 
wisdom,  and  perform  numberless  services  of  which  the 
Greeks  never  dreamed. 

Later,  the  coal  in  other  lands  has  gradually  come 
to  be  used.  Through  France,  Germany,  Austria  and 
Russia  runs  the  European  coal  belt,  where  ages  ago, 
to  be  reckoned  by  hundreds  of  millions  of  years,  on  the 
hot,  swampy,  slowly-sinking  shore  of  an  ancient  con- 
tinent, great  reedy  trees  grew  in  rank  profusion,  whose 
remains,  sealed  undecayed  between  layers  of  mud  and 
sand  brought  by  river  or  ocean,  are  now  called  on  to 
give  up  that  energy  which  the  chemistry  of  life  stored 
within  their  growing  tissues.  Not  everywhere  even  on 
this  belt  was  coal  formed,  and  even  when  formed  it 
has  in  many  places  been  entirely  removed  owing  to 
folding  and  erosion  during  the  long  ages  which  have 
passed.  In  other  areas,  too,  coal  of  a  later  date  is 
found,  but  this  is  for  the  most  part  of  less  importance 
both  in  quantity  and  quality. 

According    to    varying    circumstances,    then,    these 


318      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

states  have  in  varying  degrees  been  able  to  utilize  the 
energy  thus  provided.  In  France  t  his  coal  is  found  only 
in  the  north-east,  where  the  coal  belt  bends  round  and 
crosses  below  the  Straits  of  Dover  to  connect  with  the 
Kent  coalfield  long  known  but  only  lately  used.  Some 
coal  does  indeed  exist  on  the  southern  highlands,  but 
even  so  the  total  amount  is  not  great,  and,  while  reap- 
ing the  advantages  which  knowledge  of  improved 
methods  gives  to  a  people  of  taste  and  skill  who  are 
able  to  import  coal  from  other  lands,  France  remains 
predominantly  agricultural. 

Germany  is  somewhat  more  fortunate.  Though 
there  is  a  disadvantage  in  the  fact  that  the  coal  belt 
holding  to  the  southern  edge  of  the  plain  is  thereby  at 
some  distance  from  the  sea,  yet  areas  in  which  coal 
remains  in  profitable  quantities  are  so  great  that  a  very 
great  deal  of  the  progress  of  modern  Germany  must  be 
ascribed  to  the  supplies  of  energy  found  within  her 
borders;  while  the  deliberate  centring  of  railways  in 
Berlin,  because  it  was  the  governing  centre  at  the 
time  when  railways  began  to  be  made,  tends  still 
further  to  increase  its  value  as  a  centre  from  which 
Germany  may  be  governed,  and  gives  a  certain 
guarantee  of  stability,  which  is,  however,  set  off  by 
the  gathering  of  population  on  the  coalfields  away  from 
that  centre.  The  coalfield  of  the  upper  Oder  is  shared 
with  Austria,  which,  besides,  has  small  and  scattered 
supplies  of  much  inferior  quality,  and  with  Russia, 
which  possesses  also,  north  of  the  Black  Sea,  coalfields 
extensive,  but,  as  might  be  expected  from  her  past 
history,  comparatively  little  worked. 

In  the  lands  of  China  and  India  the  past  history  has 
not  been  such  as  to  make  it  possible  for  the  coal  they 


COAL 


319 


possess  to  be  utilized  quickly.  The  coal  supplies  of  the 
other  continents,  with  one  exception,  need  scarcely  be 
considered.  That  exception  is  North  America.  No 
land  has  benefited  more  than  this  from  the  discovery 
of  coal  power.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  coal 
resources  of  the  world  amount  to  7,397,533  million  tons. 
Of  this  Canada  is  estimated  to  have  reserves  of  1,234,269 
million  tons,  the  United  States  3,214,174  million  tons. 
Whether  this  is  exactly  true  or  not,  it  is  evident  that 
an  extraordinary  proportion  of  the  coal  of  the  world  is 


UNITED    STATES  :     COALFIELDS. 


in  North  America.  And,  if  we  examine  the  position 
of  the  coalfields,  we  see  that  three-quarters  of  the  states 
united  under  the  central  government  at  Washington  have 
coal,  while  the  greatest  amount  lies  right  in  the  track 
of  the  great  natural  advance  by  way  of  the  Hudson  and 
the  Mohawk.  Thus  North  America  differs  from  all  other 
lands,  in  that  the  greater  part  of  it  has  been  developed 
from  the  first  by  the  use  of  new  methods.  For  every 
man  on  the  continent  north  of  Mexico  at  the  beginning 
of  the  nineteenth  century  there  are  a  hundred  now. 
Energy  has  been  used  on  a  great  scale  by  people  who, 


320 


THE  UNITED  STATES  321 

accustomed  to  hard  work,  have  already  scrapped  some 
old  notions,  and  are  ready  to  adopt  new  ideas  without 
prejudice.  It  is  not  only  that  men  of  European  races 
were  tempted  to  lands  like  their  own,  neither  too  hot 
in  summer  nor  too  cold  in  winter  for  work,  yet  hot 
enough  for  the  growth  of  plants,  cold  enough  to  stimulate 
thought.  Unsuited  to  early  conditions,  it  is  exactly 
such  a  land  as  might  be  developed  quickly  by  men  of 
Northern  Europe  with  all  the  advantages  which  the 
possession  of  enormous  supplies  of  coal  energy  gave 
them. 

For  three  centuries  there  was  settlement  and  con- 
solidation on  the  eastern  coast;  the  mental  and  moral 
type  was  fixed,  the  language  was  fixed,  and  then,  just 
when  the  way  was  being  found  by  the  Hudson-Mohawk, 
and  by  the  more  difficult  ways  to  the  south,  from  the 
eastern  coast  to  the  central  plain,  the  possibility  of  the 
new  discovery  began  to  be  realized.  It  was  in  1807, 
eighteen  years  before  the  Erie  Canal  was  opened,  that 
the  first  steamboat  made  its  way  from  New  York  to 
Albany,  150  miles,  in  twenty-four  hours.  It  is  idle  to 
question  what  the  United  States  might  have  become,  had 
there  been  no  industrial  revolution,  but  this  we  know, 
that  when  it  did  have  an  effect,  the  United  States  leapt 
to  importance.  There  had  been  improvements  in  agri- 
culture, in  the  introduction  of  new  crops  and  of  new 
and  more  efficient  instruments,  so  that  more  was  ob- 
tained from  the  soil  than  before.  Not  a  little  of  the 
stored  capital,  by  the  possession  of  which  Britain 
emerged  victorious  from  the  Napoleonic  wars,  was  due 
to  those  improvements,  and  no  doubt  would  have  had 
effect,  and  indeed  did  have  effect,  on  the  west  as  on  the 
east  of  the  Atlantic.     We  may  better  gauge  the  import- 

Y 


322      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

ancc  of  the  change  to  America  by  the  actual  change  in 
Britain.  There  had  been  in  America  land  which  for 
two  centuries  before  the  industrial  revolution  was  called 
New  England,  but  a  newer  England  still  rose  on  either 
side  of  the  grass-grown  Pennine  moorlands  when  coal 
came  to  be  mined  there.  Till  then  the  land  was  empty; 
people  lived  on  the  more  fertile  land  to  the  southward. 
Now  on  the  lowland  plains  of  Lancashire  and  Yorkshire, 
and  even  on  these  grass-grown  moors,  men  crowd  each 
other  to  aid  in  directing  the  coal  energy  into  channels 
where  it  will  do  most  work.  In  the  United  States  the 
importance  of  the  change  is  masked  by  the  development 
of  agriculture,  but  the  development  of  agriculture  in 
its  most  important  forms  is  indeed  only  one  manifesta- 
tion of  the  change.  In  his  canoe  the  aboriginal  Indian 
had  been  accustomed  to  move  on  river  and  lake,  and 
by  river  and  lake  and  then  by  canal  the  successors  of 
Fulton's  steamboat  opened  up  the  country  more  quickly 
for  agriculture  than  could  possibly  have  been  done  in 
any  other  way.  With  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Canal  in 
1825,  New  York  was  fixed  as  the  commercial  gateway 
of  the  state.  Then  the  railways  were  made,  first  along- 
side those  lakes  and  rivers  and  then  out  into  the  wilder- 
ness, the  use  of  them  saving  energy  and  allowing  man  to 
use  his  own  bodily  energy  to  greater  advantage.  Even 
so  there  was  little  evidence  in  the  middle  of  the  nine- 
teenth century  of  what  would  happen  by  the  end;  the 
first  result  of  the  use  of  coal  in  industry  for  spinning  and 
weaving,  for  hammering  and  drilling,  had  been  rather 
to  fix  population  where  it  existed.  In  New  England 
mill-wheels  could  be,  and  had  been,  turned  by  water 
power;  there  the  coal  was  taken,  since  there  was  a 
population,  such  as  existed  nowhere  else,  skilled  to  use 


THE  UNITED   STATES  323 

machinery  even  of  a  simple  kind ;  but  gradually  popula- 
tions with  skill  have  grown  up  on  the  coalfields  all 
along  the  western  edge  of  the  Appalachians,  then  in  the 
central  area  south  of  Lake  Michigan,  and  now  extend- 
ing farther  south-westward  still.  The  more  recently 
developed  areas  are  not  yet  able  to  compete  on  quite 
equal  terms  with  those  where  skill  has  been  handed 
down  or  transmitted  or  taught,  it  matters  not  which, 
but  are  beginning  to  rival  those  areas  where  historical 
momentum  helps  most.  Cotton  manufacture  can  be 
carried  on  profitably  in  Alabama,  and  at  present  rates 
of  increase  the  coalfields  round  the  southern  end  of 
the  Appalachians  will,  ere  long,  turn  out  as  much  as 
that  produced  in  New  England. 

But  advance  was  made  not  alone  by  utilizing  the 
enormous  stores  of  coal  energy ;  the  very  fact  that  ad- 
vance was  thus  made  stimulated  advance  in  other  direc- 
tions. It  had  been  necessary  to  make  new  tools  to  suit 
altered  conditions,  so  new  tools  came  to  be  made  to  utilize 
such  energy  as  man  and  his  domestic  animals  possessed 
more  profitably  than  had  been  possible  previously. 
Tools  had  been  made  more  and  more  efficient  all  through 
the  ages,  from  the  time  man  first  used  a  stone  or  a  stick 
instead  of  his  own  hand.  After  the  Industrial  Revolu- 
tion the  process  was  immensely  extended  in  other  lands 
besides  those  of  which  we  are  speaking,  but  in  no  land 
has  the  process  been  so  marked  as  in  the  United  States. 
The  lesson  that  machinery  can  be  employed  to  use 
energy  more  economically  has  been  applied  to  agriculture. 
The  sickle  has  given  place  to  the  mechanical  harvester ; 
the  introduction  of  machinery  has  reduced  the  labour 
cost  of  sown  crops  by  over  £170,000,000  in  the  last 
fifty  years.     Between  1855  and  1894  the  time  of  human 


324       GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

labour  required  to  produce  one  bushel  of  Indian  corn 
on  an  average  was  reduced  from  four  and  a  half  hours 
to  undei  three-quarters  of  an  hour.  Between  1830  and 
1896  the  time  of  human  labour  required  to  produce 
a  bushel  of  wheat  was  reduced  from  three  hours  to  ten 
minutes.  The  corn  and  the  wTheat  are  no  less  nourishing, 
but  energy  has  been  saved  and  men  are  set  free  to  do 
things  more  worth  doing. 

With  the  construction  of  railways,  too,  organization 
is  possible  on  a  yet  larger  scale  than  in  the  Old  World. 
Washington,  central  between  the  settlements  in  New 
England  and  Virginia,  was  naturally  chosen  as  govern- 
ing centre  when  all  the  population  was  on  the  eastern 
coasts,  and  naturally  still  remains  the  capital ;  the 
possibility  of  its  remaining  the  capital  depends  on  the 
ease  of  access  to  the  states  of  the  centre  and  west.  It 
was  the  making  of  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway  that 
brought  British  Columbia  into  the  Dominion  of  Canada, 
and  it  was  other  transcontinental  railways  that  pre- 
vented the  growth  of  independent  states  on  the  Pacific 
coast.  Nor  is  this  all ;  this  is  only  what  has  happened 
in  every  state  in  Europe,  only  it  is  on  a  larger  scale. 
A  new  feature  is  that  in  North  America  the  railways  have 
made  the  towns.  Except  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  with 
its  old  civilization,  railways  have  not  been  made  to 
towns  because  they  were  important ;  towns  have  grown 
up  because  railways,  following  lines  of  least  resistance, 
have  inevitably  met  at  certain  points,  and  there  rather 
than  elsewhere  men  have  found  it  convenient  to  live. 

In  the  United  States,  then,  also,  we  see  that  the 
modern  helots,  slaves  of  the  furnace,  are  supplying 
energy,  and  doing  work  on  a  great  scale.  Organization 
is  on  a  great  scale ;  saving  is  on  a  great  scale.     Even  to 


THE  UNITED  STATES 


325 


a  greater  extent  than  in  the  Old  World  is  man  an 
engineer.  And  the  energy  that  is  saved  is  deliberately 
spent — some  of  it — in  finding  out  how  best  to  save  more, 
not  fortuitously,  not  accidentally,  but  by  patient  search. 


Part  of  United 
States  occupied  at 
end  of  '/0*t 'century. 


THE   FIRST   ENGLISH  SETTLEMENTS  IN  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Washington  was  a  suitable  centre  of  government  at  the  time  it 
was  chosen  as  capital. 

In  no  other  land  is  research  of  all  kinds  so  lavishly 
endowed,  if  perchance,  directly  or  indirectly,  further 
advance  may  be  made. 

And  with  the  rise  of  the  United  States  to  the  position 


326      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD  POWER 

of  a  great  Power  a  new  condition  appears  in  the  world, 
or  rather,  the  condition  which  Columbus  made  significant 
acquires  a  new  significance.  The  world  is  round.  If 
the  world  was  round  in  the  days  of  Columbus,  then  there 
was  another  way  from  the  west  of  the  Old  World  to  the 
East.  The  world  is  round  now,  and  the  United  States 
lies  between  the  west  and  the  east  of  the  Old  World. 
The  west  of  the  United  States  is  nearer  to  the  east  of 
Asia  than  is  the  west  of  Europe,  and  yet  not  so  very 
much  nearer.  Look  at  a  globe  and  try  to  realize  the 
distance  across  the  Pacific  Ocean,  especially  from  south- 
east to  north-west.  It  was  this  distance  across  the  Pacific 
that  prevented  any  real  use  being  made  of  the  western 
route  from  Europe  to  the  Indies,  so  that  till  the  rise 
of  the  United  States  the  New  World  has  been  but  a  land 
of  no  great  consequence,  lying  at  some  distance  to  the 
west  of  Europe. 

The  essential  controls  have  been  determined  by  the 
geographical  conditions  in  the  Old  World.  Within  the 
great  land  of  Euro- Asia  lay  the  plain,  steppe  to  the  south, 
backed  by  forest  and  unnavigable  ocean,  now  occupied 
by  Russia,  the  great  land  power,  but  for  long  the  home 
of  pastoral  nomads,  ever  emerging  into  the  border  lands. 
Round  this  plain,  and  partly  separated  from  it  by  high 
plateaus  or  mountain  chains,  were  the  coastlands  organ- 
ized as  the  various  states  whose  history  we  have  traced, 
and  to  a  great  extent  protected  from  the  black  peril  by 
the  barrier  of  the  Sahara. 

With  the  rise  of  the  United  States  the  distribution  of 
the  great  masses  of  land  on  the  round  world  has  come 
to  have  further  significance.  The  importance  of  Russia 
and  that  of  the  marginal  lands  remain;  but  there  is 
something   more.     In  the   apparent   disorderly   distri- 


THE  UNITED   STATES  327 

butiou  of  lands  there  is  yet  some  order.  Round  the 
South  Pole  there  is  a  great  continent,  round  the  North 
an  ocean.  Round  the  southern  continent  there  is  an 
unbroken  ring  of  ocean,  while  round  the  Northern  Ocean 
there  is  an  almost  unbroken  ring  of  land;  from  the 
ring  of  land  there  run  southward  three  tapering  land 
areas,  separated  by  three  oceans  tapering  northward. 

Partly  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  greater  proportion 
of  land  is  thus  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere,  it  is  in  the 
Northern  Hemisphere  that  there  are  those  large  areas 
of  desert  where  the  early  civilizations  began,  and 
following  on  this  that  other  civilizations  have  developed 
between  20°  and  60°  north  latitude,  with  the  most 
energetic  of  mankind  north  of  35°  N.  The  Southern 
Hemisphere  has  neither  such  large  desert  areas  nor 
such  areas  of  land  as  have  hitherto  been  suitable  for 
settlement  by  men  who  have  learned  elsewhere  how  to 
save  energy.  We  thus  see  that  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  isolated  communities  in  the  south  of  South  America, 
in  South  Africa  and  in  Australia,  all  those  which  matter 
lie  on  an  almost  continuous  belt  round  a  central  area, 
which  is  unsuited  for  settlement  because  of  cold.  These 
communities,  being  what  they  are,  naturally  desire  com- 
munication with  each  other,  and  the  rising  of  English 
North  America — the  States  and  Canada — to  importance, 
thus  makes  it  possible  not  merely  to  have  a  back  and 
forth  service  across  the  Atlantic  and  across  Euro-Asia, 
but  to  have  a  continuous  circular  service,  in  some  parts 
better,  in  some  parts  worse,  giving  to  the  inhabitants  of 
every  place  on  this  belt  better  facilities  for  movement 
at  less  expense  than  they  would  have  if  they  were  not 
on  this  belt.  There  are  fewer  termini  and  dead  ends ; 
every  place  is  on  the  way  to  somewhere  else. 


328      GEOGRAPHY  AND   WORLD   POWER 

Transcontinental  lines  across  North  America  and 
Siberia  are  thus  seen  to  have  an  importance,  not  merely 
because  they  save  an  enormous  detour  by  ship,  but 
because  they  are  several  parts  of  a  circular  route  with 
no  final  termini,  while  routes  like  the  proposed  Cape  to 
Cairo  line  are  seen  not  only  to  be  in  competition  with  the 
sea  on  either  hand,  but  to  lead  nowhere  at  the  south- in 


f^k 


ij  Land 


overl200K. 


THE   POSITION   OF   CHICAGO. 


end.  Cape  Town  as  a  land  terminus  is  a  dead  end. 
Vancouver  and  San  Francisco  are  on  main  through 
routes  to  lands  beyond.  It  is  these  lands  beyond, 
indeed,  which  in  part  supply  the  objectives  for  the 
routes  radiating  northwestward  from  Chicago  and 
Winnipeg,  while  the  possibility  of  the  existence  of 
these  routes  depends  on  the  fact  that  the  lands 
through  which  they  pass  are  open  enough  for  settle- 


THE  UNITED   STATES  329 

ment  by  men  who  would  use  them  to  gain  control  of 
energy  in  ways  to  which  they  have  become  accustomed. 

Here,  then,  is  the  United  States  taking  its  place  in 
the  circle  of  lands,  a  new  orbis  terrarum  ;  and  yet  outside 
the  system  which  has  hitherto  mattered,  compact  and 
coherent,  with  enormous  stores  of  energy,  facing  Atlantic 
and  Pacific,  having  relations  with  east  and  west  of 
Euro-Asia,  preparing  by  a  fortified  Panama  Canal  to 
fling  her  one  fleet  into  either  ocean,  and  attempting  to 
secure  the  approaches  to  that  Canal  by  the  formulation 
of  a  Monroe  doctrine  which  forbids  control  of  any 
lands  of  the  New  World  by  Powers  of  the  Old,  but  is 
effective  at  present  only  in  those  small  and  compara- 
tively unimportant  states  lying  round  the  seas  through 
which  vessels  using  the  Panama  Canal  would  pass. 

Here,  unlike  the  disunited  states  of  Europe,  in  which 
men  speak  many  languages  and  remember  that  through 
the  long  past  years  they  have  been  at  enmity,  we  have 
a  vast  land  where  people  speak  one  language,  with  no 
long  history  of  discord  behind  them — the  United  States. 

But  the  lowlands  of  the  South  are  damp  and  warm ; 
they  have  conditions  different  from  those  to  which 
Europeans  are  accustomed,  and  in  the  early  days  of 
settlement  negroes  were  brought  by  force  from  their 
African  homes  to  carry  on  the  harder  manual  labour  of 
the  fields,  and  especially  to  raise  cotton  for  the  Lanca- 
shire factories.  The  negroes  are  increasing  quickly  in 
number ;  they  form  a  compact  community,  ten  millions 
strong,  unabsorbed  and  impossible  to  absorb.  The 
absence  of  the  desert  is  still  of  importance.  There  is 
no  Sahara  to  keep  white  and  black  apart.  Such  a 
problem  has  not  hitherto  presented  itself  to  any  nation, 
and  the  solution  is  not  yet  found. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   FUTURE   POSSIBILITIES 

In  the  previous  chapters  we  have  traced  out  the 
important  steps  by  which  the  conditions  of  the  modern 
world  have  gradually  been  evolved.  These  conditions 
have  been  viewed  as  the  outcome  of  the  control  exercised 
by  geography  on  man  in  his  attempts  to  obtain  and  use 
more  and  more  energy ;  we  have  seen  what  are  the  great 
geographical  controls,  and  have  observed  that  they  act 
in  many  different  ways  according  to  the  amount  and 
kind  of  knowledge  and  experience  which  man  has 
accumulated.  It  remains  to  make  an  attempt  to  dis- 
cover what  are  the  possibilities  of  change  or  further 
advance. 

It  is  evident  from  what  has  already  been  learned  that 
there  are  possibilities  of  advance  in  two  ways,  at  any 
rate.  The  controls  which  we  already  know  might  act 
differently,  or  further  supplies  of  energy  which  have  not 
been  used  in  the  past  might  become  available.  Regions 
where  movement  is  difficult  might  be  found  to  be  easily 
traversed  or  man  might  be  able  to  use  stores  of  energy 
in  regions  where  it  has  not  been  possible  to  use  them. 
Thus  changes  in  the  use  of  energy  would  be  accompanied 
by  changes  in  the  relative  importance  of  areas.  The 
geography  would  still  control  the  course  of  history,  but 
it  would  control  it  in  a  different  way. 

330 


THE  FUTURE  POSSIBILITIES  331 

And,  further,  changes  may  be  brought  about  by  the 
exhaustion  of  supplies  of  energy  on  which  man  now 
draws ;  some  lands  might  conceivably  grow  drier,  crops 
might  not  be  grown,  food  energy  would  fail;  if  the 
process  was  extensive,  history  would  be  greatly  affected. 
Some,  indeed,  have  sought  to  prove  that  the  interiors 
of  the  greater  continents  are  now  becoming  progressively 
drier;  others  say  that  there  are  regular  rhythms,  dry 
periods  of  years  alternating  with  wet,  but  that  there  is 
nothing  progressive.  Whether  either  theory  is  true  or 
neither  scarcely  concerns  us;  we  know  that  whether 
dry  periods  are  cyclic  or  no,  they  certainly  occur,  and 
have  affected  history  in  more  ways  than  one.  And 
whether  continental  areas  are  becoming  drier  or  not, 
the  change  is  so  slow  that  other  changes  must  have 
greater  effect. 

Another  and  more  important  source  of  supply  which 
must  become  exhausted  lies  in  those  very  coalfields  of 
which  we  have  spoken.  This  change  of  condition  is  more 
serious,  for  when  coal  is  used  it  cannot  be  replenished ; 
there  is  only  a  certain  definite  amount,  and  when  that  is 
done  there  is  no  more.  Of  course,  it  might  be  that  the 
supply  was  so  enormous  that  we  could  go  on  using  it  for 
indefinite  ages  and  yet  would  make  no  impression,  but 
this  is  not  so.  The  survey  of  the  world,  though  not 
complete  and  detailed,  is  yet  so  accurately  known  now, 
that  there  cannot  be  any  great  undiscovered  source  of 
coal.  On  this  basis  it  has  been  estimated  that,  at  the 
present  rate  of  consumption,  coal  in  Britain  and  Germany 
may  last  for  500  or  1000  years,  and  that  in  the  United 
States  for  6000  years,  but  if  the  consumption  continues 
to  increase  at  its  recent  rate,  all  the  coal  that  can  be 
worked  in  these  lands  under  existing  conditions  will  be 


332      GEOGRAPHY   AND  WORLD   POWER 

exhausted  in  150  years.  This  may  not  be  altogether  a 
bad  thing;  it  may  merely  be  a  stimulus  to  further 
saving,  to  making  further  advance.  The  stimulus  to 
save  is  indeed  already  acting  to  bring  about  the 
employment  of  such  engines  as  will  really  use  the 
most  energy  in  the  coal :  a  good  steam-engine  uses 
only  about  12  %  of  the  energy  in  the  fuel.  This  is 
about  the  percentage  of  his  food  energy  that  a  man 
can  use  in  doing  work,  but  a  turbine  uses  30  %,  and 
a  good  gas-engine  probably  a  little  more,  but  even  this 
is  wasteful  compared  with  the  energy  which  the  firefly 
uses  to  produce  its  light.  However  this  may  be,  and 
even  supposing  that  all  the  energy  locked  up  in  all 
the  coal  of  all  the  world  were  employed  for  useful 
work,  it  is  obvious  that  there  will  be  a  dearth  after 
a  period  which,  however  long  when  judged  by  ordinary 
standards,  yet,  when  measured  by  the  time  which 
we  call  historic,  is  certainly  short.  As  the  coalfields 
are  worked  out,  the  lands  containing  them  must  become 
of  less  account;  those  lands  which  can  mine  coal 
longest  will,  other  things  being  equal,  obtain  a  corre- 
sponding importance.  The  very  extensive  coalfields  in 
China  must  thus  have  a  peculiar  interest  for  the 
future. 

Petroleum  is  an  important  source  of  energy,  but 
though  less  is  known  of  the  sources  of  supply,  it  is 
almost  certain  that  these  are  not  being  renewed,  and 
it  is  certain  that  the  total  amount  available  is  not  to  be 
compared  with  that  of  coal,  and  that  it  will  be  exhausted 
still  sooner.  In  the  eastern  states  of  America  the  supply 
is  diminishing  rapidly,  and  though  the  output  is  increas- 
ing from  the  states  west  of  the  Mississippi,  yet  even  at 
the  present  rate  the  supply  will  be  exhausted  within  a 


THE  FUTURE   POSSIBILITIES  333 

century,  and,  if  the  rate  continues  to  increase,  within 
this  generation. 

What  other  sources  of  energy  have  we  ?  For  a 
thousand  years  and  more  the  peoples  of  North-West 
Europe  have  used  the  energy  of  the  tidal  rise  twice 
a  day  to  carry  shipping  far  inland  against  wind  and 
river  flow,  and  the  energy  saved  has  been  of  extra- 
ordinary use ;  it  might  seem  possible  to  use  this  energy, 
which  is  running  to  waste,  for  all  kinds  of  useful  purposes, 
but  except  in  a  few  favoured  spots  it  cannot  compete 
with  coal;  even  with  the  exhaustion  of  coal  it  does 
not  appear  likely  that  it  would  be  used  except  as  a  last 
resource,  and  even  then  there  would  be  little  return  for 
great  outlay,  while  storms  would  be  likely  to  damage 
the  necessary  extensive  works. 

The  energy  of  the  wind  and  of  falling  water,  like  that 
of  the  tides  and  unlike  coal,  is  continually  being  renewed. 
The  energy  of  the  former  is,  however,  also  like  that  of  the 
tides,  in  that  it  gives  little  return  for  outlay,  and  the 
total  amount  of  the  latter  is  probably  by  no  means  equal 
to  that  necessary  to  take  the  place  of  coal  energy  if 
coal  should  fail.  In  the  United  States,  for  example, 
the  water-power  is  estimated  to  be  able  to  produce 
from  36  to  66  million  H.-P.  This,  even  if  all  utilized, 
is  certainly  less  than  a  half  of  the  H.-P.  actually  to 
be  obtained  from  coal  now  mined  in  the  United  States, 
and  may  be  a  good  deal  less.  The  energy  of  falling 
water  has,  however,  the  advantage  of  being  more 
economical  than  either  wind  or  tidal  energy,  in  other 
words,  more  may  be  obtained  for  a  given  outlay,  and 
it  is  probable  that  we  may  see  high  and  rainy  regions 
taking  a  more  prominent  place  in  the  world  system. 

It  is,  of  course,  possible  that  some  agent  may  be 


334      GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

discovered  by  which  it  may  be  possible  to  use  the  energy 
given  out  by  certain  forms  of  matter,  of  which  radium 
is  the  chief  example,  or  that  the  internal  heat  of  the 
earth  might  be  tapped;  but  it  is  thought  to  be  very 
improbable  that  any  considerable  amount  of  energy 
may  be  obtained  from  either  of  these  sources. 

Thus  the  changes  that  appear  likely  are  those  depend- 
ing on  the  exhaustion  of  coal  and  on  the  more  extensive 
use  of  water-power,  modified  by  increased  ability  to  use 
supplies  of  energy  more  economically.  That  is  to  say, 
other  things  being  equal,  it  is  likely  that  regions  where 
coal  remains  unexhausted  longest,  and  where  large  sup- 
plies of  water-power  are  available,  may  keep  or  gain  an 
importance  at  the  expense  of  others  not  so  fortunate. 

But  we  may  take  more  fundamental  distributions 
into  account.  Stores  of  coal  and  petroleum  are  of  the 
nature  of  capital  which  has  been  accumulated  long  ages 
past,  and  in  using  them  we  are  not  really  accumulating 
energy  at  all ;  they  are  on  a  somewhat  different  footing 
from  the  energy  which  man  makes  his  own,  in  almost 
the  only  way  possible  till  130  years  ago,  by  eating  food 
which  has  grown  by  the  sun's  energy  within  a  few  days 
or  months  of  its  consumption.  The  use  of  coal  energy 
is  something  in  the  nature  of  an  incident.  In  the  midst 
of  the  changes  which  the  Industrial  Revolution  has 
brought,  we  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  it  is  an 
incident,  and  that  solar  radiation  is  the  final  source  of 
by  far  the  greatest  amount  of  energy  available  on  the 
earth's  surface,  and  especially  that  vegetation  now 
growing  supplies  the  energy  in  the  most  convenient 
forms;  culture  of  the  soil,  horticulture  and  agriculture 
and  arboriculture,  whether  it  be  the  oldest  trade  or  not, 
is  certainlv  the  most  fundamental. 


THE  FUTURE  POSSIBILITIES  335 

Advance  in  saving  energy  is  being  made  by  the  use 
of  the  best  machinery  and  by  organization  of  all 
kinds,  so  that  there  may  be  as  little  waste  as  possible. 
And  further  advance  is  being  made  by  obtaining 
greater  crops  as  the  result  of  researches  on  all  sorts 
of  problems,  the  solution  of  which  does  not  seem  at 
first  sight  likely  to  bring  about  a  saving  of  energy. 
As  the  results  of  studies  on  heredity,  wheats  are 
being  bred  which  will  resist  disease,  which  will  ripen 
in  a  shorter  time,  which  will  give  a  better  bread 
than  was  possible  before.  As  the  results  of  research 
on  bacteria  which  live  in  soils  and  elsewhere,  means 
have  been  found  of  removing  from  the  soil  those 
organisms  which  prey  on  the  particular  bacteria  that 
give  energy  in  a  form  available  for  use  by  plants.  As 
the  results  of  observations  of  barometric  height  and 
rainfall  at  places  so  widely  separated  as  South  America 
and  the  east  coast  of  Africa — observations  in  themselves 
purely  scientific,  and  discussed  by  means  of  pure  mathe- 
matics— some  indication  is  given  to  the  farmers  in 
India  of  the  amount  of  rain  that  the  monsoon  is  likely 
to  bring  them.  Advance  is  being  made  now  in  ability 
to  obtain  more  energy  from  the  soil  and  in  allowing  less 
to  be  wasted,  and  those  lands  accumulate  most  energy 
where  there  are  most  men  either  capable  of  showing  how 
advance  may  be  made,  or  capable  of  utilizing  the  new 
knowledge.  Such  areas  for  the  most  part  are  where  there 
is  most  stored  energy,  so  that  some  may  be  set  apart 
to  promote  those  researches ;  that  is  to  say,  in  the  lands 
where  there  is  most  coal.  Thus  at  present  the  results 
of  advance  in  soil-cultivation  are  rather  masked  by  the 
advance  due  to  the  use  of  coal. 

It  must  seem  probable,  however,  that  the  greatest 


336      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

advance  would  take  place  when  those  lands  where 
things  grow  quickest  under  the  influence  of  heat  energy, 
made  available  by  the  presence  of  sufficiency  of  moisture, 
were  brought  into  the  world  organization.  We  have 
seen  that  the  equatorial  forests  have  hitherto  remained 
outside  that  organization.  It  was  not  possible  for  an 
early  civilization  to  develop  within  them;  hitherto  the 
growth  of  vegetation  has  been  found  too  rapid  for  men 
to  control.  But  with  the  experience  and  knowledge 
gained  by  controlling  great  organizations,  made  possible 
by  the  use  of  coal,  men  are  now  capable  of  utilizing 


THE    HOT,    WET   FOREST   BELT. 

other  vast  stores  of  energy.  In  our  northern  lands 
we  have  but  one  crop  a  year,  and  growth  takes  place 
comparatively  slowly.  In  the  basins  of  the  Amazon 
and  Congo,  and  on  the  islands  of  -  the  East  Indies, 
continuous  growth  is  taking  place,  and  that  quickly. 
Here,  then,  is  an  ever-renewed  source  of  energy;  is  it 
possible  to  use  it  ?  A  beginning  has  been  made,  organiza- 
tion is  taking  place,  the  world's  supply  of  rubber  comes 
from  these  forests ;  but  this,  though  of  importance,  is 
a  small  matter,  for  rubber  is  not  a  source  of  energy,  its 
use  only  tends  to  save  energy;  what  we  should  expect 
would  be  that  these  regions  would  supply  energy 
directly ;  whether  that  energy  will  be  obtained  from  fuel 


THE  FUTURE  POSSIBILITIES  337 

for  burning,  which  is  not  likely,  or  from  alcohol  distilled 
from  things  grown,  or  in  some  other  way,  scarcely 
matters;  the  energy  is  there  and  may  be  utilized. 

There  are,  indeed,  two  reasons  why  even  the  white 
man,  capable  of  organization,  has  been  prevented  from 
undertaking  the  organization  of  those  regions.  In  the 
first  place,  the  conditions  are  so  very  different  from 
those  to  which  white  men  have  been  accustomed  in 
the  northern  lands,  that  there  has  been  a  disinclination 
to  attempt  the  solution  of  all  the  problems,  to  attempt 
all  the  adjustments  necessary  to  live  well  under  them ; 
in  other  words,  it  is  difficult  to  get  people  to  change 
their  habits,  to  change  their  ways  of  doing  things ;  the 
momentum  is  too  great.  Africa  and  South  America 
were  known  of  long  before  the  lands  of  the  United  States 
and  Canada  were  discovered,  but  in  the  latter  men  might 
live  in  ways  not  greatly  different  from  those  to  which 
they  were  accustomed ;  while  in  the  others  everything  is 
strange,  life  has  to  be  planned  on  different  lines,  so  that 
white  men  do  not  go  to  these  lands  in  any  numbers  to 
settle.  At  the  best  they  wish  to  go  in  small  numbers  for 
a  few  years,  as  they  go  to  India. 

Thus  it  is  not  surprising  that  so  little  progress  has 
been  made,  especially  as,  in  the  second  place,  not  only 
are  the  conditions  different,  but  they  are  dangerous  to 
life.  The  Greeks  and  the  Romans  appear  to  show  a 
lack  of  virility  in  their  later  as  compared  with  their 
earlier  histories :  possibly  this  may  be  due  in  part  to 
the  results  of  malaria  introduced  from  warmer  lands 
which  they  dominated.  Whether  or  not  this  be  so,  it 
is  certainly  true  that  diseases  unknown  in  colder  lands 
bring  excessive  mortality  where  the  temperature  is  high, 
a  waste  of  human  life  with  little  corresponding  saving. 
z 


338      GEOGRAPHY  AND  WORLD   POWER 

But  here  there  is  evidence  that  progress  is  being  made ; 
these  diseases  and  their  cause  have  been  investigated — 
in  ways  which  at  first  sight  gave  no  promise  of  any 
alleviation  of  human  suffering,  of  any  hope  that 
energy  would  be  saved — and  methods  of,  at  any  rate 
partial,  prevention  worked  out.  A  generation  ago  no 
one  would  have  predicted  that  this  knowledge  would 
have  been  obtained  by  studying  the  habits  of  insects  of 
various  kinds,  by  collecting  and  examining  them  under 
a  microscope ;  yet  it  is  true.  Diseases  have  been  proved 
to  be  carried  from  one  to  another  by  particular  kinds  of 
insects,  mostly  mosquitoes,  and  these  diseases  have  been 
greatly  reduced  or  quite  stamped  out  by  exterminating 
the  insects  that  carry  them.  In  Rio  Janeiro  in  1898 
there  were  1078  deaths  from  yellow  fever;  in  1908  there 
were  only  4.  In  Havana,  between  the  years  1853  and 
1900,  the  average  annual  death  rate  from  yellow  fever 
was  754,  in  1907  there  was  only  one  death  from  this 
disease.  In  1887,  21,033  persons  died  of  malaria  in 
Italy;  in  1907  the  number  was  4160.  In  Ismailia 
there  were  2000  cases  in  1902 ;  there  were  none  in  1905. 
Port  Said  has  also  been  cleared  of  malaria. 

There  has  been  a  saving  of  energy  even  when  measured 
in  terms  of  hard  cash ;  in  1903  malaria  cost  the  Suez  Canal 
38,200  francs,  while  in  1908  the  cost  was  less  than  half 
that  amount.  The  construction  of  the  Panama  Canal 
itself  has  been  rendered  possible  by  the  discovery  of 
the  measures  necessary  to  keep  down  disease;  plague 
and  yellow  fever  were  stamped  out,  malaria  greatly 
reduced ;  the  death  rate  among  the  employees  fell  from 
over  40  per  1000  in  1906  to  10-64  per  1000  in  1909— a 
lower  death  rate  than  is  found  in  most  towns  of  the 
civilized  world. 


THE  FUTURE  POSSIBILITIES  339 

It  has  indeed  been  said,  "  The  cliinate  of  equatorial 
lands  is  not  harmful  in  itself;  all  it  does  is  to  give 
you  sunstroke  if  you  go  out  in  the  heat  of  the  day 
with  inadequate  headgear,  and  to  make  it  difficult 
to  keep  awake  after  lunch.  Tuberculosis,  rheumatic 
fever  and  influenza  are  absent.  .  .  .  Avoid  the  tsetse 
and  you  will  not  get  sleeping-sickness,  the  mosquito  and 
you  will  not  get  malaria;  do  not  sleep  on  mud  floors 
or  pitch  your  tent  on  old  encampments  where  are  ticks 
and  bed  bugs ;  keep  rats  at  a  distance,  and  you  will 
be  safe  from  plague.  With  care  and  attention  life  in 
the  tropics  is  more  free  from  disease  than  is  that  in  our 
temperate  but  influenza-ridden  Palsearctic  climate." 
The  advice  given  may  at  present  be  difficult  to  follow, 
but  it  is  an  advance  to  know  what  advice  to  give ;  when 
it  is  possible  for  great  numbers  to  follow  this  advice  and 
to  profit  by  the  results  of  further  knowledge,  then  man 
will  be  able  to  use  and  save  the  vast  stores  of  energy  in 
the  equatorial  forests,  and  the  Congo  and  Amazon  will 
no  longer  flow  through  unoccupied  regions. 

And  there  is  yet  another  possibility  :  in  the  hot 
desert  of  the  Sahara,  with  clear  sky  and  practically  no 
rain  for  years  at  a  time,  there  is  no  vegetation,  and  man 
has  not  been  able  to  live,  but  if  it  could  be  possible  to 
use  directly  the  energy  of  solar  radiation,  which  con- 
tinuously from  sunrise  to  sunset  batters  the  land  in 
little  less  amount  than  in  lower  latitudes,  another  region 
which  is  now  vacant  would  be  able  to  support  great 
populations,  and  would  become  of  extraordinary  im- 
portance. Here,  on  to  an  area  comparable  with  that 
occupied  by  Greater  London,  is  yearly  directed  as  much 
solar  energy  as  could  be  produced  on  complete  com- 
bustion by  the  total  amount  of  coal  annually  raised  in 

Z2 


340       GEOGRAPHY   AND   WORLD   POWER 

Britain.  Experiments  have  been  made  with  engines 
which  give  a  high  thermal  efficiency,  but  it  is  too 
early  to  say  whether  or  no  the  first  steps  which  will 
lead  to  a  great  revolution  have  been  taken.  This  is 
certain,  that  the  nearer  the  equator  one  goes  the  greater 
are  the  potentialities  of  saving  energy ;  that  there  are 
supplies  of  energy  on  which  we  may  draw  when  coal  is 
exhausted,  and  that  sooner  or  later  these  supplies  of 
energy  will  be  used.  With  their  use,  if  the  past  is  any 
criterion  for  the  future,  there  must  come  an  inevitable 
change  in  the  distribution  of  mankind — in  habits  of  life, 
and  in  all  those  matters  which  profoundly  influence  the 
course  of  history.  But  the  efEects  of  this  change  will  be 
modified  by  the  past  history ;  the  things  that  have  been 
will  continue  to  be,  because  they  have  been. 

With  this  peep  into  the  future,  then,  we  leave  the 
story;  is  it  out  of  place  or  out  of  date  to  suggest 
that  some  "  increasing  purpose  runs  "  through  all  the 
wonderful  process  whereby  things  are  "  made  to  make 
themselves  " ;  and  that  though  the  mills  of  God  grind 
slowly  they  grind  exceeding  small  ? 


Note. — The  manuscript  of  this  book  was  finished  in  the  be- 
ginning of  July  1914.  Since  then  great  events  have  happened, 
and  it  might  have  been  well  to  take  note  of  them  and  bring  the 
volume  "  up  to  date."  A  few  verbal  changes  have  been  made, 
but  this  is  all  that  has  been  done,  partly  because  we  are  still 
too  near  those  events  to  see  them  in  their  proper  perspective, 
and  partly  because  there  is  little  need  to  make  changes :  the 
book  is  as  true  now  as  it  was  in  the  end  of  July. 


INDEX 


Aboukir,  185 

Abyssinia,  24,  26,  120,  274 

Accad,  36 

Acre,  185 

Actium,  91 

adobe,  289 

Adriatic  Sea,  76,  184 

advance,  3,  17,  19,  28,  29,  37, 
42,67,99,102,111,112,117, 
118,  127,  168,  180,  188,  211, 
212,  213,  224,  229,  240,  276, 
278,  280,  289,  291,  292,  296, 
298,  302,  312,  323,  325,  330, 
335,  337,  338 

jEgean  Sea,  51,  52,  54,  65,  66, 
68 

Afghanistan,  199,  261,  262,  268 

Africa,  17,  18,  71,  96,  97,  98, 
99,  100,  122,  123,  125,  129, 
131,  137,  139,  266,  269-281, 
282,  287,  327,  337 

Agesilaus,  60 

Agra,  263 

Agricola,  129 

agriculture,  36,  37,  38,  39,  80, 
158,  163,  183,  194,  198,  230, 
231,  232,  236,  237,  242,  252, 
274,  275,  276,  286,  290,  310, 
311,  313,  314,  318,  321,  322, 
323,  329,  331,  334-337 

air,  15,  87 

Akbar,  264 

Alabama,  323 

Alaric,  107 

Albany,  321 

alcohol,  337 

Alexander,  59,  62,  63,  68,  254 


Alexandria,    63-64,    68,    128, 

140 
Algarve,  137 
Algiers,  126 
Allemanni,  106 
alluvium,  26,  35,  229,  249 
Alps,  88,  89,  99,  100,  108,  132, 

154,218 
Altai,  240,  245,  279 
Amazon,  285,   292,   296,   302, 

336,  339 
Amenhetep,  29 
America,    130,    136,   143,  145, 

152,  164,  169,  177,  181,  183, 

270,  282,  305 
Amiens,  186 

Andes,  285,  286,  292,  297,  299 
Angevin,  167 
Angles,  167 
Anglesea,  239 
Angola,  278 
Anti  Lebanon,  43 
Antioch,  64,  65 
Antwerp,  150 
Apennines,  76,  77,  108 
Appalachian    Highlands,  284, 

307,  323 
Appius  Claudius,  82 
apples,  290 
Aquitaine,  156 
Arabia,  114-116,  121,  122, 123, 

125,  126,  127 
Arabian  Sea,  140 
Arabs,  29,  41,  68,  69,  115-117, 

119,  121,  122,  126,  127,  129, 

130,  131,  133,  136,  139,  140, 

142,  145,  193,  261,  274,  276 


341 


342 


INDEX 


Aragon,  137 

Aral,  98 

Aravalli  Hills,  262 

Arctic  Circle,  15 

Arctic  Ocean,  285 

Arctio  Regions,  13,  32 

Argentina,  286,  302,  303 

Argolis,  54 

Armada,  169-170 

Armageddon,  43 

Armed  Neutrality,  186 

Armenia,  29 

Asia,  96,  98,  99,  100,  104,  105, 

108,  109,  116,  127,  198,  214, 

226,  253,  264,  283,  286,  287, 

326.     See  also  Euro-Asia. 
Asia  Minor,  52,  56,  57,  59,  62, 

63,  65,  66,  99,  109,  122,  125, 

200 
Assyria,  38-41,  45,  46,  56,  72, 

73,   80,   81,   104,    111,   236, 

254,  291 
Assyrians,  29,  106,  131,  254 
astronomy,  48 
Aswan,  26,  126 
Athens,  54,  57,  58,  78,  79,  81 
Atlantic  Ocean,  126,  143,  159, 

163,  169,  175,  224,  270,  285, 

286,  327,  329 
Attila,  107 
Aurangzeb,  264 
Austria,    160,    190,    192,    208, 

211,  218-220,  221,  317,  318 
Australia,  149,  327 
Auvergne,  155 
Avars,  107,  108,  195 
Azores,  141 
Aztecs,  291,  294,  295,  301 

Babylonia,  36-41,  43,  48,  49, 
52,  53,  64,  65,  81,  103,  116, 
119,  227,  248,  253,  254 

Babylonians,  29,  111,  117 

Bagdad,  35,  123,  124 

Baikal,  227,  245 

Bale,  200 


Balkan  Peninsula,  50,  99,  195, 

220,  249 
Baltic  Sea,  107,  164,  185,  186, 

195,  199,  214,  220 
Baluchistan,  250 
bananas,  290 
Bank  of  England,  176 
bank  notes,  4 
banks,  5,  176,316 
barbarians,  105,  106,  111,  200, 

274,  281 
barbarism,  20,  236 
Barbary,  68,  69,  123,  125,  126. 

See   also   Algiers,    Morocco, 

Tunis, 
barriers,   46,   47,   52,    75,   98, 

99,  125,  127,  306,  309.    See 

also  defence,  protection. 
Bavaria,  205 
Bay  of  Bengal,  251 
Bay  of  Biscay,  164,  189 
Beirut,  140 

Belgium,  149,  150,  280 
Bengal,  257,  263,  265 
Berbers,  100 
Bergen,  213 

Berlin,  201,  222,  223,  224,  318 
bison,  287,  292 
Black  Forest,  200 
Black  Prince,  158 
Black  Sea,  58,  65,  89,  318 
blockade,  188 
boats.    See  ships. 
Bohemia,  200,  215,  216 
Bolivia,  301 
Bologna,  76 
Bombay,  265,  266 
Bordeaux,  158,  183 
Bosporus,  199 
Boulogne,  188,  189 
Brandenburg,   211,   220,    221, 

223 
Brazil,  145,  151,  284,  285,  302 
Brenner,  132 
Brest,  188,  189 
bridge,  157 


INDEX 


343 


Bristol,  169 

Britain,  15,  69,  98,  129,  134, 
142,  152,  160,  161-192,  203, 
208,  211,  223,  243,  264,  265, 
267,  268,  272,  278,  279,  280, 
308,  312,  315,  316,  320,  321, 
322,  331,  340 

British  Columbia,  325 

British  Empire,  179 

Brittany,  155,  159,  183 

Brunswick,  213 

Buddhism,  245 

Buenos  Ay  res,  302 

Bulgarians,  108,  164 

Burgundians,  203 

Burgundy,  159,  206 

bushmen,  275,  279 

Byzantium,  64,  65,  90,  93,  196, 
200,  214 

Cadiz,  189 

Cairo,  280,  328 

Calcutta,  266 

California,  288 

Callao,  301 

camels,  133.  287,  294 

Canada,    177,    178,    319,    324. 

327,  337 
Canadian  Pacific  Railway,  324 
canals,  37,  46,  320,  322,  329, 

338 
canoes,  322 

Cantabrian  Mountains,  1 36 
Canton,  245,  246 
Cape  Finisterre,  173 
Cape  Horn,  130,  151 
Cape  Non,  139 
Cape  of  Good  Hope,  255,  269, 

274,  275,  278,  279,  280,  328 
Cape  St.  Vincent,  139 
Cape  Town,  151 
capital,  177,  321,  334 
Caribbean  Sea,  295,  296,  301 
Caribs,  295-296 
Carinthia,  108 
Carnatic,  265 


Carolina,  178 

Carpathians,  109,  214,  218,  220 

Carthage,  49,  66-72,  81,  83,  85, 

86,  98,  125 
Carthaginians,  74,  79,  96,  165 
Caspian  Sea,  98,  109 
Castile,  137,  140,  141,  142 
cataracts,  26 
Cathay,  239 
Catholicism,  140,  147,  160,  209, 

210  214  221 
cattle'  103,'  105,  168,  274,  287 
Cauca,  301 
Cauvery,  259 
Central    America,     143,     284, 

299,  301,  302 
cereals,  290,  313 
Ce  vermes,  155 
Ceylon,  120,  126,  151,  259 
Chalcidice,  62,  66 
Chaldea,  73,  82,  83,  182,  185, 

228 
Chalons,  107 
Channel,  the,    158,    163,    167, 

189,  190,  279 
Channel  Islands,  167 
Charlemagne,    153,    205,    206, 

223 
Charles  II,  171 
Charles  Martel,  205 
Charles  the  Great.    See  Charle- 
magne. 
Charles  V,  218 
Chatti,  106 
cheques,  176 
Cheviots,  167 
Chicago,  328 
Chile,  302,  303 
Chilterns,  167 
China,  110,  112,  120,  129,  144, 

225-246,  247,  248,  253,  260, 

318   332 
Christianity,  94,  118-126,  136, 

137,  139,  142,  147,  165,  205, 

206,  209,  213,  214,  215,  219, 

220,  260 


344 


INDEX 


Church,  04,  120,  140,  205,  209- 
210,213,215.    SeealsoPope. 

Cilicians,  67 

climate,  33,  34,  40,  69,  87,  96, 
98,  101,  112,  162,  178,  194, 
199,  231,  237,  242,  248.  249, 
250,  257,  267.  273,  278,  285, 
293,  298,  302,  308,  309,  320, 
339 

clothes,  11,  133,  203,  250,  274, 
289,  295,  310,  311,  312,  314, 
315,  317 

Clovis,  205 

Cnut,  135 

coal,  4,  8,  11,  19,  223,  314-321, 
339,  340 

coal  supply,  331-334 

coalfields,  315-319,  321,  322, 
323,  331 

coinage,  175-176 

Colbert,  172,  173 

cold,  15,  21,  95,  96,  100,  102, 
128,  136,  158,  162,  195,  201, 

202,  203,  227,  228,  242,  250, 
293,  307,  308,  321,  327 

colonies,  49,  68,  70,  171,  178, 
179,  220,  278,  279,  299,  301, 
309,310.  See  also settlement. 

Colombia,  301 

Columbus,  112,  128,  130,  141, 
142,  143,  144,  169,  270,  326 

Commonwealth,  171 

communications,  46,  76,  89, 
147,  156,  197,  233,  234,  246, 
258,  280,  297,  327.  See  also 
ways,  roads. 

compass,  4 

Congo,  273,  277,  336,  339 

conquest,  29,  40,  59,  (13.  97. 
116,  124,  141,  143,  150,  151, 
157,  178,  179,  184,  185,  190, 

203,  217,  233,  236,  237,  240, 
241,  243,  260,  262,  263 

Constant  ine,  92 
Constantinople,    90,    92,    106, 
110,  120 


control,  7-16,  20,  21,  22.  23 
43,  50,  53.  54,  59,  <;<>.  66,  <i7. 
71,  73,  79,  84,  87.  !><>.  91, 
92,  95,  99,  128,  129,  [30, 
139,  14<i,  193,  228,  234,  242, 
244,  246,  247,  248,  268,  276. 
277,  278,  298,  302,  304,  326, 
330 

Copenhagen,  186 

copper,  315 

Cordillera,  283,  284 

corn,  58,  313,  317 

Cornwallis,  188 

Corsica,  71 

Cote  d'Or,  156 

cotton,  7, 276, 280,  289, 323,329 

cranial  types,  75 

credit,  176 

Crete,  51,52,  126 

Croatia,  108 

Croesus,  56 

Cromwell,  171 

Crusades,  110,  126,  213,  260 

Cumans,  109 

currents,  15,  64 

Cuxhaven,  187 

Cuzco,  293,  294,  295,  301 

cycle,  18,  23,  102,  331 

Dalmatia,  108 

Damascus,  43,  123 

Danes,  135,  167 

Danube,  107,  108,  205,  235 

Dardanelles,  58,  62 

David,  45 

death  rate,  338 

deciduous  trees,  195 

deer,  274 

defence,  39,  53,  55,  75,  81,  91, 
92,  103,  125,  150,  152,  158, 
168,  169,  182,  190,  227,  235, 
295.     See  also  protection. 

Dekkan,  252,  256,  263,  264, 
266,  272 

Delhi,  262,  263,  264,  267,  268 

delta,  229,  277,  280 


INDEX 


345 


Denmark,  80,  134,  186,  190, 
196  243 

desert,  21,  23,  26,  27,  30,  32,  33, 
35,  38,  39,  42,  52,  64,  69, 
83,  91,  93,  95,  96,  98,  99, 
100,  103,  114,  116,  117,  122, 
125,  12J,  139,  182,  188,  227, 
228,  235,  238,  250,  258,  260, 
262,  274,  277,  282,  283,  285, 
286,  288,  289,  292,  295,  299, 
301,  327,  329,  339 

Diaz,  140,  144 

disease,  277,  280,  337-339 

discoveries,  310,  316,  319,  334 

domestic  animals,  286-287,  292 
294,  310,  323 

Dover,  163,  166,  187,  318 

Downs,  167 

Drake,  170 

drift  currents,  15 

drought,  104,  128,  194,  227, 
230,  331,  339 

Dublin,  239 

Dutch,  149-153,  159,  160,  171- 
175,  243,  265,  278,  279,  305, 
309 

dye,  276 

earth,  13,  128-129,  130,  141, 
297,  326,  334 

East  India  Company  (British), 
171 

East  India  Company  (French), 
177 

East  Indies.     See  India. 

Ebro,  137 

Ecuador,  301 

Edinburgh,  43,  239 

Egypt,  23-31,  33,  36,  43,  44, 
45,  49,  52,  63,  65,  73,  81,  82, 
83,  91,  98,  100,  103,  110, 
111,  116,  117,  119,  120,  122, 
123,  126,  128,  174,  182,  184, 
186,  189,  226,  227,  228,  248, 
253,  269,  274,  289,  295,  296, 
297,  305 


Elamites,  38,  41 

Elbe,  185,  187,  223 

Electors,  207,  208,  211,  221 

Elijah,  44 

Elizabeth,  264 

Emperor,  207,  208,  209,  211 

empire,  94,  120,  135,  136,  207, 

233 
Empire,    the,    153,    196,    205, 

206,  207,  208,  209,  211,  213, 

214,    215,    216,    217,    218, 

221 
Ems,  187 
Eneray,  4-7,  10-16,  18,  19,  20, 

45,  46,  54,  61,  66,  67,  69,  72, 
79,  80,  81,  82,  83,  87,  88,  94, 
103,  111,  112,  113,  118,  127, 
131,  133,  136,  140,  144,  147, 
150,  151,  152,  162,  166,  168, 
169,  170,  171,  175,  176,  177, 
179,  180,  182,  183,  186,  190, 
192,  198,  211,  213,  214,  223, 
225,  228,  246,  248,  250,  253, 
267,  268,  269,  270,  274,  276, 
282,  287,  289,  290,  291,  294, 
295,  297,  298,  302,  305,  307, 
310,  311,  312,  313,  314,  316, 
317,  318,  319,  322,  323,  324, 
325,  329,  330-340 

engineers,  317,  325 

England,  10,  15,  44,  108,  149, 

157,  158,  163,  166,  168,  170, 

196,  208,  210,  239,  305,  322 
English  Channel,  158, 163,  167, 

190  279 
equator,  13,  15,  17,  19,  20,  32, 

95,  102,  272,  273,  285,  289, 

293,  336,  340 
Eratosthenes,  128 
Erie  Canal,  321,322 
Esdraelon,  43,  44 
estuaries,  164 
Etruscans,  80 
Euphrates,  33,  35,  36,  41,  43, 

46,  64,  70,  228 
Euro -Africa,  99 


316 


INDEX 


Euro-Asia,  92,  97,  100,  199, 
224,  227,  274,  292,  326,  327, 
329 

Euro-Asia-Africa,  96,  127 

Europe,  17,  18,  96,  97,  98.  99, 
100,  104,  105,  110,  112,  114, 
129,  132,  140,  146,  147,  150, 
170,  185,  190,  206,  215,  218, 
221,  225,  238,  243,  247,  248, 
253,  259,  260,  270,  278,  282, 
287,  298,  326,  329,  333 

Euxine,  58.  See  also  Black  Sea. 

evaporation,  11,  194 

exchange,  176 

exploration,  277,  280 

factories,  316-317 

Fashoda,  279 

feudal  system,  112,  208-209 

fever,  277,  280,  338 

fighting,  39,  49,  56,  57,  61,  85, 
87,  142,  149,  170,  180-182, 
188 

Finland,  199 

fire,  310 

firefly,  332 

fish,  16 

fishing,  134,  135,  136,  149 

flax,  312 

fleets,  57-58,  63,  72,  84,  86, 
180,  185,  187-188,  189,  329 

flocks,  289 

Florence,  149 

Fokien,  241,245 

food,  11,  16,  17,  18,  19,  49, 
133,  158,  183,  196,  274,  286, 
289,290,  295,  310,  311,  312, 
314,  315,  317,  331,  334 

force,  23 

forest,  128,  193-197,  201,  203, 
214,  215,  220,  231,  248,  251, 
252,  253,  254,  256,  258,  263, 
264,  273,  274,  275,  276,  277, 
278,  279,  280,  285,  286,  288, 
289,  290,  292,  293,  295,  296, 
301,  307,  309,  326,  336,  339 


Formosa,  243 

France,  10,  90,  107,  134,  162, 
153  160,  163,  167,  169,  171, 
175-180,  1S2,  1831' (2,  206, 
208,  210,  221,  223,  249,  265. 
278,279,305,309,317,318 

Frankfort,  200,  201,  203,  204, 
205 

Franks,  106, 107,  203,  204,  205, 
206,207,209,211,223 

Frederick  Barbarossa,  209 

freewill,  21 

friction,  103,  147,  258 

frontiers,  215,  217,  227,  235, 
240,  258 

fruits,  314 

fuel.  337.     See  also  coal. 

Fulton,  322 

Gambia,  278 

Ganges,  249,  251 

Garonne,  156 

gas  engine,  332 

Gaul,  107,  153,  203,  205 

genius,  22 

Genoa,  126,  133,  134,  140,  141 

Georgia,  178 

Germans,  106,  107,  153,  195. 
See  also  Teutons. 

Germany,  98,  134,  153,  164, 
196,  199-224,  243,  279,  317, 
318,331 

Ghats,  251 

Gibraltar,  123, 136, 148, 175, 189 

goats,  287 

gold,  142,  143,  145,  149,  150, 
151,  170,  176,  291,  299.  See 
also  treasure,  wealth. 

Goths,  93,  106,  107,  203 

government,  5,  27,  28,  37,  39, 
40,  55,  70,  72,  79,  80,  81,  82, 
85,  88-89,  92,  93,  109,  110, 
159,  163,  168,  183,  195,  203, 
208,  211,  212,  213,  214,  253, 
258,  259,  263,  264,  265,  266, 
267,  291,  310,  313,  318,  324 


INDEX 


347 


grain,  289-290,  294 

Granada,  124,  137 

grass,  101,  103,  105,  128,  163, 
168,  194,  195,  214,  227,  245, 
252,  264,  274,  275,  286,  287, 
292,  322 

Great  North  Road,  43 

Greece,  10,  50-66,  74,  75,  80, 
83,86,91,98,  104,  111,  116, 
201,316 

Greek  Church,  196,  200,  215 

Greeks,  29,  41,  50,  51,  65,  68, 
71,  74,  79,  81,  85,  106,  111, 
112,  119,  125,  164,  180,  254, 
295,  296,  316,  317,  337 

Greenland,  129 

Guiana,  151,  284,  285 

Guinea,  140,  151,  273,  380 

Gujerat,  252 

Gulf  of  California,  288 

Gulf  of  Mexico,  286,  288 

habits,  337 

Hemus,  108 

Hamburg,  164,  213 

Han,  232,  233,  234 

Hankow,  246 

Hanover,  187,  205,  211 

Hansa  towns,  213,  223 

Hapsburg,  208,  218,  221 

harbours,  48,  75,  313 

harvest,  19,  31 

Havana,  338 

head  form,  75 

heat,  11,  16,  87,  96,  101,  102, 
128,  162,  228,  250,  253,  270, 
274,  277,  288,  307,  308,  312, 
315,  321,  333,  336,  337 

Hebrews,  42,  44,  45 

Hellas,  50 

Hellenes,  50 

Hellespont.    See  Dardanelles. 

helots,  316,  317,  324 

hemispheres,  327 

hemp,  186 

Henry  the  Saxon,  209,  220 


Herakleopolis,  28 

hieroglyphics,  4 

highland,  80,  87,  88,  89,  93, 
99,  100,  101,  105,  137,  168, 
199,  200,  215,  218,  226,  227, 
228,  237,  239,  248,  249,  250, 
251,  272,  283,  284,  285,  294, 
333.  See  also  mountain,  pla- 
teau. 

Himalayas,  241,  248,  251,  254, 
262,  263 

Hinduism,  260 

Hindus,  257,  264 

history,  1-7,  21-23,  42,  45,  47, 
53,  59,66,  67,  73,91,  93,96, 
99,  100,  104,  106,  114,  118, 
127,  128,  129,  130,  136,  147, 
162,  166,  195,  224,  225,  228, 
234,  236,  250,  269,  304,  305, 
307,  316,  318,  330,  331,  340. 
See  also  particular  countries. 

Hohenstaufen,  207,  209 

Hohenzollern,  221 

Holland,  149-153,  159,  160, 
169,  170,  185 

horses,  103,  133,  193,  197,  218, 
287 

horticulture,  334 

Hottentots,  275,  279 

Hudson  Bay,  284 

Hudson,  Henry,  309 

Hudson-Mohawk  gap,  308, 309, 
319,  321 

Humber,  43 

Hungarians,  109 

Hungary,  108,  109,  110,  211, 
215,  219,  239 

Huns,  107,  258 

Hwang  Ho,  226,  228,  229,  230, 
231,235,236,237,239 

Hyksos,  28 

Iberia,  80,  136-145,  146,  149, 
153,  191.  See  also  Spain, 
Portugal. 

ice,  98,  129,  306 


348 


INDEX 


Iceland,  129,  141 

Eohang,  234 

Incas,  294,  296,  301 

India,  Indies,  69,  1 09,  110,  120, 
122,  125,  I26j  129,  130,  131, 
134,  137,  140,  143,  144,  145, 
150,  151,  160,  170,  174,  177. 
178,  184,  185,  246-268,  269, 
270,  278,  279,  298,  313,  326, 
336,  337 

Indians,  American,  322 

Indian  corn.     See  maize. 

Indian  Ocean,  126,  127,  163 

indigo,  276 

Indus,  249,  250,  258,  261,  262 

Industrial  Revolution,  223, 
314,  321-329,  334 

industry,  223 

influenza,  338 

Inner  Lead,  134 

insects,  338 

interest,  177 

invasion,  28,  30,  51,  60,  76-78, 
106-113,  130,  157,  182,  186, 
187,  189,  190,  240,  259,  294 

inventions,  4 

Inverness-shire,  15 

Iranian  plateau,  35,  38,  56, 
124,  249,  254,  256,  261 

Ireland,  98,  163,  239 

iron,  310 

irrigation,  28,  31,  39,  46,  198, 
230,  232,  233,  235,  288,  290, 
301 

Islam.    (See  Mohammedanism. 

islands,  51,  52,  53,  54,  57,  59, 
64,  69,  71,75,76,  84,  85,  86, 
91,95,96,126,  134,  149,150, 
161,  164,  166,  167,  168,  169, 
191,  248,  295,  296,  300,  336 

Ismailia,  338 

Israelites.     See  Hebrews. 

Italy,  52,  75-94,  107,  108,  132, 
141,  156,  159,  169,  184,  186, 
187,  200,  206,  223,  243,  249, 
312,  338 


James  I,  173,  208 
•  lapan,  240,243 
.la son,  60 

Jenghiz  Khan.  109,  239 
Jerusalem,  45,  100 
Jordan,  43 
Judaism,  118,  147 
jungle,  231,  232,  250,  251,  252, 
253,  256,  257,  264 

Kalahari,  273,  277,  280 

Kassites,  38.  41 

Kent,  318 

Khasars,  108,  109 

Kitan  Tartars,  238 

Knights  of  the  Teutonic  Order, 

211 
Kublai  Khan,  109,  240 

Labrador,  15 

lagoons,  152 

Lake  Baikal,  227 

lakes,  21,  214 

Lancashire,  7,  322,  329 

language,  212,  213,  243,  310, 

329 
Languedoc,  156 
Laon, 208 
Latium,  78,  85 
Laurentian  shield,  284 
lead,  315 

League  of  Augsburg,  174 
Lebanon,  43 
Leibniz,  173 
Leon,  136,  137 
Leontes,  43 
Lepanto,  91 
Levant,  44,  68,  69,  174 
light,  11,332 
Lima,  301 
lime-burning,  315 
limestone,  26 
Lisbon,  146 
Lithuania,  215 
Liverpool,  314 
llamas,  294-295 


INDEX 


349 


loess,  230 

Loire,  156 

Lombards,  93,  108,  203 

Lombardy,  75,  108,  132,  146, 
154,  206 

London,  10,  43,  167,  176,  201, 
208,  223,  239,  315,  316,  339 

loom,  312 

lowlands,  35,  87,  88,  93,  99, 
163,  166,  167,  168,  201,  205, 
213,  248,  249,  262,  283,  284, 
285,  297,  299,  302,  305,  309, 
322,  329.     See  also  plain. 

Lubeck,  213 

Macedonia,  59,  60,  61,  62,  63, 

85,  86,  223 
Mackenzie,  285 
Madeira,  141 
Madras,  265,  266 
Magdalena,  301 
Magdeburg,  213 
Magellan,  130,  143,  144 
Magyars,  109,  220 
Mahanadi,  252 
Main,  205 
Mainz,  205 

maize,  289,  290,  294,  324 
Malabar,  120,  121 
malaria,  337-338 
Manchuria,  238,  239,  241,  242, 

245 
Manchus,  241,  244,  245 
manufacturing,  149,  150,  316- 

317,  322,  323,  329 
Marathas,  266 
Marco  Polo,  130 
markets,  49,  313,  314 
marks,  211,  212,  220 
Maine,  156 
Marseilles,  154,  158 
marsh,  35,  36,  47,  52,  64,  103, 

152,  167,  182,  250.     See  also 

swamp. 
Masai,  275 
Mashona,  275 


Matabili,  275,  279 

Mauritius,  151 

maximum  load,  6 

meat,  132 

Medes,  41,  56,  60 

Mediterranean  Sea,  42,  43,  47, 
48,49,51,56,63,  68,  71,86, 
89,  90,  91,  95,  97,  98,  99, 
100,  112,  125,  126,  127,  129, 
131,  134,-136,  140,  141,  158, 
164,  166,  174,  175,  185,  189, 
195,  199,  203,  242,  248,  269, 
273,  276,  296 

Megiddo,  43 

Memphis,  28,  63 

Mesopotamia,  38,  43,  44,  45, 
60,  63,90,91,  109,  120,  122, 
228.  See  also  Babylonia, 
Chaldea,  Assyria. 

Metaurus,  76 

Mexico,  143, 150,  286,  288,  289, 
290,  291,  292,  294,  297,  299, 
300,  301,  319 

Michigan,  323 

milk,  287,  295 

mills,  311-312,  313,  322 

mind,  17,  31,  48,  53,  57,  60, 
66,  81,  112,  117,  118,  127, 
130,  146,  193,  196,  213,  228, 
233,  260,  286,  320 

Ming,  241 

Mississippi,  178,  284,  305,  309 

Moguls,  109,  110,  264,  266 

Mohammed,  120,  123 

Mohammedanism,  118,  120- 
127,  136,  137,  153,  164,  165, 
193,  197,  213,  236,  239,  259, 
260,  261,  263,  264,  266,  270, 
276 

Mohawk,  309,  319,  320 

Moluccas,  143 

momentum,  7,  67,  85,  90,  94, 
119,  120,  139,  147,  172,  201, 
208,  219,  232,  260,  323,  337, 
340 

Mongolia,  225,  241 


350 


INDEX 


Mongols,   104,   124,   197,   198, 

240,  241,  245,  264 
Monroe  doctrine,  329 
monsoons,  226,  230,  232,  251, 

265 
moorland,  322 
Moore,  126,  137,  139,  144,  148, 

153,  164 
Morocco,  126,  139,  277 
Moscow,  198,  199       > 
mosquitoes,  338 
mountains,  21,  50,  60,  75,  80, 

88,  124,  199,  226,  227,  236, 

248,  254,  262,  284,  286,  293, 

326 
movement,  4,  11,  43,  45,  83, 

103,  105,  111,  129,  130,  144, 

188-189,  193,  194,  195,  198, 

205,  253,  274,  275,  287,  298, 

315,  322,  327,  330 
Munich,  201 
Muscovy,  197,  198 

Nankin,  241,  245 

Napoleon,  90,  184-192,  219, 
278,  316,  321 

Narbada,  251 

National  Assembly,  183 

Navarino,  66,  91 

Navarre,\^36 

Navigation  Act,  171 

navy,  178,  180,  185,  223.  See 
also  fleet. 

needles,  4 

Nefud,  35 

negroes,  87,  97,  100,  276,  280, 
287,  326,  329 

Nelson,  185,  188,  189 

Nepaulese,  241 

Netherlands,  134,  149,  150, 
172.  See  also  Holland,  Bel- 
gium. 

New  Amsterdam,  151 

Newrnstlo,  43,  315 

New  Eneland,  178,  307,  309, 
322,  323,  324 


Newfoundland,  175 

New  York,  178,  306-309,  321, 

322 
Niger,  279,  280     /    v     /     * 
Nile,  24-27,  32,  33,  46,  64,  70, 

258,  279 
Nineveh,  39,  56 
nomadism,  103,  104,  105,  106, 

110,  111,  116,  133,  195,  198, 

235,  236,  237,  253,  274,  287, 

289,  292,  326 
nomes,  27,  52 
Normans,  108,  156,  157,  165, 

167,  196 
Norsemen,  136,  156,  157,  167, 

196,  200,  206,  213,  242,  243 
North  America,  130,  136,  143, 

151,  178,  283,  284,  285,  286, 

287,  288,  292,  319-329 
North  Pole,  327 
North  Sea,  135,  163,  167 
Norway,  98, 134,  135,  164,  173, 

196,  242 
Norwegians,  134 
Nova  Scotia,  175,  178 
Novgorod,  196,  197 
numerals,  4 

oases,  91,  115,  116,  117,  125, 
237   274 

ocean,'  91,  92,  129,  130,  137- 
192,  193,  199,  200,  221,  223, 
230,  242,  243,  244,  253,  272, 
297,  301,  302,  305,  310,  326, 
327,  329 

ocean  empire,  161-192 

ocean  power,  150,  151,  152, 
153,  159,  160,  170,192,  245 

Odoacer,  107 

Oder,  223,  318 

Oise,  156 

organisation,  27,55,59,  69, 103, 
105,  106,  159,  166,  172,  176, 
177,  185,  198,  199,  201,  205, 
207,  214,  216,  220,  223,  232, 
233,  239,  248,  252,  253,  254, 


INDEX 


351 


255,  256,  257,  258,  259,  263, 
264,  266,  267,  280,  291,  294, 
295,  298,  299,  300,  301,  302, 
313,  316,  324,  326,  336,  337 

Orinoco,  285,  296 

Orizaba,  285 

Orleans,  156 

Orontes,  43 

Otto,  220 

Ottoman  Turks,  110 

Pacific  Ocean,  143,  163,  199, 

226,  326,  329 
Palestine,  44,  45,  116,  119 
Panama,  143,  329,  338 
Paris,  155,  156-158,  159,  182, 

183,  192,  201,  208,  223 
pastoral  peoples,  103,  195,  198, 

275,  276,  281,  287,  292,  326 
pastoral    pursuits,    311,    313, 

314 
Patzinaks,  108,  109 
peace,  28,  90,  98,  166,  171,  180, 

185,  237,  253 
Pe-chi-li,  238,  239,  245 
Pekin,  226,  239,  241,  244,  245, 

246 
Peloponnese,  51 
Peninsula,  the,  191.     See  also 

Iberia,  Spain,  Portugal. 
Pennines,  43,  322 
pepper,  132 
Persia,  57,  58,  62,  63,  84,  120, 

199   254 
Persian  Gulf,  46,  47,  126,  131 
Persians,  29,  41,  56,  57,  59,  60, 

85,  106,  131 
Peru,  150,  292-301 
Petrograd,  199 
petroleum,  332-333,  334 
phalanx,  61,85,  180 
Philip    of    Macedon,    59,    62, 

63 
Philippines,  144 
Philistia,  44 
Philistines,  43,  44,  45 


Phoenicians,  48,  49,  52,  53,  55, 
56,  57,  59,  68,  71,  72,  74,  81, 
83,86,98,111,119,122,125, 
129,  164,  178,  242 

pine  trees,  194,  195 

Pippin,  205 

Pisa,  126,  133,  140,  149 

place,  9-10 

plague,  339 

plain,  100-113,  114,  116,  193, 
194,  198,  199,  200,  203,  218, 
221,  222,  224,  226,  227,  229, 
230,  231,  235,  236,  237,  238, 
239,  240,  245,  249,  254,  256, 
257,  258,  263,  265,  269,  282, 
285,  286,  292,  293,  295,  306, 
318,  326.     See  also  lowland. 

plateau,  21, 35,  38, 69, 142, 146, 
149,  226,  227,  230,  235,  236, 
237,  238,  239,  240,  242,  249, 
250,  261,  277,  279,  285,  288, 
292,  293,  294,  297,  299,  300, 
301,  326 

Poitiers,  156,  164 

Poland,  109,  215,  216,  221 

Poles,  N.  and  S.,  327 

Pomerania,  215 

Pompey,  86 

Pope,  94,  139,  140,  141,  144, 
146,  151,  153,  170,  205,  209- 
210,  303.     See  also  Church. 

population,  35,  39,  149,  178, 
247,  248,  250,  256,  258,  267, 
276,  286,  288,  289,  301,  313, 
317,  318,  319,  320,322,  323, 
324,  325,  339 

Port  Mahon,  175 

Port  Said,  338 

ports,  134,  313 

Portugal,  134,  137-145,  146, 
149,  151,  152,  166,  169,  170, 
175,  190,  191,  243,  265,  278, 
279,  281,  298,  299,  302,  313 

potatoes,  290,  294 

pottery,  315 

Prague,  216 


352 


INDEX 


Prinoe  Henry  the  Navigator, 

137-140,  141 

printing,  4,  147,  317 

progress.     See  advance. 

protection,  6,  20-21,  28,  25, 
26,  29,  30,  33,39,  50,  51,54, 
56,66,73,74,81,95,97,103," 
116,  117,  152,  168,  184,  195. 
227,  228,  235,  237,  248,  253, 
256,  258,  259,  274,  276,  286, 
289,  290,  294,  297,  311,  313. 
See  also  defence. 

Protestants,  147,  210,  221 

Provence,  158,  159 

Prussia,  186, 190, 192,  208, 211, 
218,  220-224 

pueblos,  289,  290,  291 

Punjab,  250,  254,  257.  258, 
264,  267 

pyramids,  27 

Pyrenees,  89,  136,  154,  158, 
167,  197,  206 

radiation,  11,  19 

radium,  334 

railways,  43,  164,  198,  223, 
224,  246,  280,  316,  317,  318, 
322,  324,  327-328 

rain,  8,  14,  16,  18,  23-24,  33, 
34,  69,  96,  101,  105,  128, 
139,  158,  162,  194,  226,  227, 
232,  250,  251,  258,  270-272, 
273,  274,  277,  286,  288,  292, 
296,  333,  336,  339 

Rajputana,  259 

Raleigh,  170 

Rameses,  29 

rapids,  277 

rats,  339 

Red  Sea,  46,  47,  126,  131,  274 

Reformation,  147,  159,  170, 
209  221 

rc-lieio'n,  117-119, 124, 125, 159, 
210,259,260,261.  See  also 
Church,  Christianity,  Mo- 
hammedanism, Buddhism. 


Renascence,  147 

research,  325,  335 

revolution  of  the  earth,  13 

revolutions,  5,  183 

Rhine,  148,  149,  150,  162,  101. 
185,  200,  205,  221,  235 

Rhodes,  86 

Rhone,  89,  154,  183,  203,  200 

Ethone-Saone,  154,  156,  206 

Richelieu,  160,  171 

Rio  Janeiro,  338 

rivers,  21,  46,  47,  60,  148,  156, 
162,  164,  217,  226,  232,  233, 
234,  235,  242,  249,  258,  277, 
286,  288,  295,  313,  322 

roads,  43,  81-83,  88,  134,  135, 
148,  156,  164,  167,  217,  233, 
234,  313,  316 

Rocky  Mountains,  284,  285, 
286,  289 

Roman  Empire,  7,  65,  90-94, 
96,  106,  110,  111,  119,  120, 
123,  131,  133,  134,  136,  153, 
154,  156,  168,  195,  200,  202, 

203,  204,  205,  206,  214,  219, 
223,  233,  234,  243 

Romans,  29,  41,  96,  107,  111, 

112,  125,  131,  164,  233,  313, 

337 
Rome,    73-94,    98,    106,    107, 

111,  119,  120,  125,  156,  182, 

201,  215,  221 
roots,  290 

rotation  of  the  earth,  13,  128 
routes,  43,  44,  142,  170,  189, 

204,  222,  263,  274,  326,  328. 
See  also  communications, 
roads,  ways. 

rubber,  336 

Russia,  98,  109,  186,  190,  191, 
192,  193-199,  200,  220,  226, 
236,  240,  245,  268,  317,  318, 
326 

Sabine  Hills,  80 
Sagres,  139 


INDEX 


353 


Sahara,  32,  91,  97,  98,  99,  100, 
123,  125,  127,  139,  227,  236, 
273,  274,  275,  326,  329,  339- 
340 

St.  Lawrence,  178,  284,  305, 
309 

Salamis,  57,  240 

Salonica,  66 

Samarcand,  264 

Samnium,  80 

sandstone,  26 

San  Francisco,  328 

Santiago,  302 

Saone-Rhone.     See    Rhone  - 
Saone. 

Saracens,  93,  122,  123,  124, 
125,  126,  127,  165,  205 

Sardinia,  71 

Sargon,  36,  44 

savages,  8,  23,  27,  37.  274,  280, 
290,  297,  299,  310 

savanna,  285 

Savoy,  88 

Saxons,  135,  167,  203,  207, 
209,  211,  220,  242 

Saxony,  205,  221 

Scandinavia,  196,  206,  248. 
See  also  Norway,  Sweden. 

Scotland,  43,  129,  163,  168, 
208,  239 

Scythians,  258 

sea,  21,  27,  46,  47,  48,  50,  52, 
54,  56,  57,  61,  62,  63,  64,  68, 
74,  75,  76,  77,  78,  80,  83,  84, 
85,86,87,90,95,96,98,101, 
116,  119,  129,  130,  133,  134, 
135,  136,  139,  150,  158,  163, 
164,  168,  169,  170,  173,  180, 
181,  182,  188,  190,  196,  200, 
203,  223,  230,  240,  242,  243, 
244,  246,  248,  253,  254,  255, 
256,  261,  265,  267,  277,  278, 
295,  296,  297,  301,  304,  313, 
318 

sea-power,  49,  55,  56,  57,  62, 
72,   84,   86,   125,    126,   129, 


150,  160,  170,  171,  172,  174, 

176,  177,  179,  180,  223.  242, 

300,  301,  315 
seasons,    18-19,   24,    33,    102, 

228,  232,  270-271,  286,  288 
Sechwan,  233,  234 
Seine,  156 
Seljuk  Turks,  110 
Senegal,  277,  279,  280 
Senegambia,  277 
Sennacherib,  29 
Servia,  108 
settlement,  27,  43,  45,  69,  104, 

108,  129,  144,  151,  194,  196, 

228,  229,  232,  237,  276,  277, 

278,  289,  307,  308,  309,  321, 

327,  328-329,  337 
Seven  Years  War,  178 
Shanghai,  245 
Sheep,  103,  168,  287,  312 
ships,   46-48,  49,   52,   55,  57. 

134,  149,  150,  157,  166,  174, 

181,  184,  185,  188,  190,  191, 

277,  299,  313,  315,  327,  329. 

See  also  fleet,  navy. 
Sian,  245,  246 
Siberia,  328 

Sicily,  52,  58,  71,  126,  164-166 
sickle,  323 
Sidon,  48,  49,  70,  81 
Si-Kiang,  226,  231,  233,  239 
Sikhs,  267 
silver,  142,  143,  145,  149,  150, 

291,  299 
Sind,  250,  257,  262 
skill,  322-323 
slaves,  278,  316 
Slavs,  107,  108,  195,  196,  203, 

215,  216 
smithy,  315 
Solomon,  45 
South  America,  143,  144,  283, 

284,  285,  286,  287,  292,  294, 

299,  327,  337 
Southampton  Water,  167,  224 
South  Pole,  327 


:>,r>  l 


INDEX 


South  Sea  Bubble,  176-177 

spade  culture,  230 

spades,  4,  230 

Spain,  71,  89.  107,  123,  124, 
125,  134,  141-145,  146,  149, 
160,  151,  152,  159,  164,  170, 
172,  177,  179,  180,  191,  197, 
223,  310 

Spaniards,  147,  150,  152,  165, 
166,  291,  294,  295,  298,  299, 
300,  301,  302,  305 

Spanish  Succession,  war  of, 
174 

Sparta,  54,  58,  60,  62 

spices,  133,  140,  142,  143,  144, 
145,  146,  149,  151,  169,  278, 
299,  313,  314 

spinning,  322 

States  General,  183 

steam,  315 

steam-engines,  4,  332.  See 
also  railways. 

steamships,  246,  317,  321,  322 

steppe,  35,  38,  39,  101,  108, 
109,  111,  115,  116,  117,  122, 
125,  198,  220,  236,  247,  250, 
263,  274,  286,  287,  326 

steppe  dwellers,  102-106,  108- 
113,  164,  198,  215,  235,  236, 
254,  258,  268,  274 

Stettin,  213 

stimulus,  17-21,  30,  48,  53,  57, 
66,  67,  75,  83,  93,  95,  97,  98, 
99,  100,  102,  103,  111,  116, 
130,  170,  172,  193,  195,  196, 
198,  200,  201,  203,  206,  215, 
228,  238,  253,  256,  259,  268, 
270,  276,  286,  287,  296,  297, 
298,  304,  321,  323,  332 

stone,  83 

Straits  of  Dover,  187,  188,  318 

Sudan,  273,  274,  275,  276,  277, 
279-280,  285 

Suez,  266,  338 

sun,  11-13,  100,  128,  253,334, 
339, 340 


Surat,  266 

surveying,  128 

Swabia,  206,  207,  209,  211 

swamps,  21,  36,  37,  41,  229. 

See  also  marsh. 
Sweden,    98,    186,    190,    196. 

221 
Sweyn,  135 
Switzerland,  88 
Syene,  128 
Syria,  35,  43,  44,  65,  120,  122 

Tamerlane,  109,  264 

Tang,  238 

Tapti,  251 

Tarentum,  80 

Tarim,  236-238 

Tatars,  104,  238-239,  240,  241, 

258,  263 
Taurus,  122 
taxation,  208 
tea,  314 
temperature,  8,  12,  15,  98,  101, 

102,  105,  158,  162,  194,  248, 

249,  250,  270,  272,  293,  306, 

307,  308,  337.    Sle  also  heat, 

cold. 
"  Ten  Thousand,"  the,  58,  60 
Teutonic    Order,    Knights   of, 

211   220 
Teutons,  93, 100, 104, 106, 112, 

203,  205,  211 
Thames,  167 
Thebes  (Egypt),  28,  63 
Thebes  (Greece),  54,  59 
thermal  efficiency,  340 
Thessaly,  60 
Thian-Shan,  237,  245 
Thotmes,  29 
Thrace,  63 
Thurii,  80 

Tiber,  77,  78,  79,  80 
Tibet,  226,  227,  236,  237,  241, 

248 
tides,  47,   163-164,   167,  277, 

309,  333 


INDEX 


355 


Tigris,  33,  35,  36,  38,  41,  46, 

70,  228 

timber,  186,  187 

Timour.     See  Tamerlane. 

tools,  323 

Toulon,  189 

towns,  132,  149,  313,  324 

trade,  38,  40,  45,  48,  49,  53, 
55,  56,  57,  65,  68,  70,  71,  72, 
80,  82,  85,  86,  126,  127,  129, 
130,  131,  133,  134,  139,  140, 
141,  142,  145,  146,  149,  150, 
151,  152,  164,  168,  171,  172, 
173,  174,  175,  176,  177,  178, 
179,  182,  184,  185,  186,  187, 
190,  191,  213,  221,  229,  234, 
297,  312,  313 

trade  unions,  6 

Trafalgar,  189,  190 

transmission  of  character,  66, 
67,  99,  323 

treasure,  278.  See  -also  gold, 
silver. 

trees,  194,  195,  334.  See  also 
forest. 

Trinidad,  296 

tropical  medicine,  338 

Tsushima  Straits,  240 

Tsin,  232,  235 

Tsings,  241 

Tsin-Ling,  231 

tuberculosis,  339 

Tunis,  69,  71 

Turan,  122 

turbine,  332 

Turkey,  110,  190 

Turks,  29,  41,  67,  109-110, 
124,  125,  165,  211,  219,  261 

Tyre,  48,  49,  70,  81 

Tyrol,  88 

Umbria,  80 

United  States.  226,  243,  319- 

329,  331,  333,  337 
universities,  213 
Urls,  109 


Uruguay,  302 
Utrecht,  175 

Valparaiso,  226 
Vancouver,  328 
Vandals,  93,  106,  203 
Vasco  da  Gama,  130,  140 
vegetation,  11,  16,  21,  85,  87, 

101,  103,  250,273,  286,  321, 

334,  336,  339 
Vendee,  183 
Venice,  126,  132, 133,  134,  140, 

146 
Vera  Cruz,  301 
Via  Appia,  82 
Vienna,  201,  218,  219,  239 
Vikings,  129,  136 
Villeneuve,  189,  190 
Virginia,  170,  178,  309,  324 
Volga,  108 

Wales,  168 

Wall,  Chinese,  235,  237 

Warsaw,  215,  216,  217 

Washington,  319,  324,  325 

waterfalls,  277 

water  power,  11,  313,  322,  333, 

334 
water  supply,  23-24,  33,  227, 

228,  237,  250,  258,  274,  288, 
294.     See  also  rain. 

ways,  43,  44,  45,  46,  47,  48,  55, 
70,  77,  82,  127,  139,  142, 
143,  146,  149,  150,  156,  166, 

229,  233,  234,  236,  242,  254, 
269,  280,  297,  309,  313,  320, 
324 

wealth,  28,  134,  143,  149,  150, 
169,  184,  203,  286,  297,  299 

weaving,  312,  322 

Wei-Ho,  228, 229,  231,235,236, 
237,  239,  241,  245,  248,  253 

Weser,  185,  187 

Western  Ghats,  251 

West  Indies,  143,  177,  189, 
284,  295,  296,  298,  299 


356 


INDEX 


WVtlrrnu,  205 

wheat.  15,  290,  814,  324 

wheels,  4.  83 

William    the   Conqueror.    1  H>. 

167 
William  the  Silent,  151 
Winchester,  1C7,  208 
winds,   15,    16,   69,    101,    139, 

143,  162,  181,  183,  189,  194, 

226,  230.  251,  272,  278,283, 

286,  298,  313,  333 
Winnipeg,  328 
Wisby,  213 
wool,  149,  168 
work,  4,   162,   311,   314,   320, 

322,  324 
world.     See  earth. 
writing,  4,  243 


Xerxes,  57,  58,  60,  240 

Yanptse-Kianp,  226,  231,  283, 
i':;t.  239,  246 

yello*  fever,  338 

Yellow  River.  See  Hwang- 
Bo. 

Yellow  Sea,  230 

Yonne,  156 

York, 43 

Yorkshire,  322 

Yucatan,  292,  299,  301 

Zambezi,  281 
Zanzibar,  273 
Zulus,  275,  279 
Zungarian  Gate,  245.  246 


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